(Bombs Overīaghdad)’ signalled what was to come. Sounds and faster beats reflecting the growing prevalence of drugs like ecstasy
Influence that rave culture was having upon rap music at the time, the new
Where the vast majority of mainstream hip-hop wasĬharacterised by slow, laid-back tempos, Outkast acknowledged and embraced the Practically every other hip-hop artist in 2000. Launched them into the musical stratosphere, placing them miles ahead of Splicing street-level ghetto imagery with psychedelic explorations, Stankonia These tracks simply wouldn’t have worked as effectively as they did.Įstablished Outkast as undisputed masters of southern hip-hop, praised for Within our grasp, rather than some totally out-there fantasy land. Reality, helping to make Stankonia feel more like a tangible world just His more grounded flows not only keep up with hisīandmate’s creativity and visions but provide a crucial anchor for them in Recording studio, but that observation does not denigrate the importance of hisĬontributions here. Big Boi – spent his time more conventionally in the Grown tired with plain rapping) which contributed greatly to Stankonia’sĬomparison, Patton – a.k.a. Trappin’’ – Benjamin adopted a speak-singing croon while recording (having Killer Mike on the amusingly lewd ‘Snappin’ & Manner with the album’s guest stars – among them, future Run The Jewels MC Eventually moving to the studio to flesh out the songs in a collegiate Opting to work predominantly from his house that he was re-decorating,Ĭomposing song sketches on an acoustic guitar and painting lyrical ideas on his Well-spring of inspiration was largely (but not exclusively) down to Andreģ000. Groups apart, but Outkast was already a broad enough church in sonic terms to It was the product of the kind of creative restlessness that normally pulls Nothing like the dimension jump that actually transpired with Stankonia. 1998’s kaleidoscopic Aquemini had signposted this to some extent with its huge sonic palette, but Tempos and the duo’s lyrical dispositions, Stankonia was much faster, withīig Boi and Andre 3000 frequently more energised and urgent in both theĭelivery of their flows and their thematic content. Where the likes of their 1994 debut Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik and its 1996 successor ATLiens were generally laid-back in terms of their Immediately noticeable element of their fourth recordwas how different
Inĭoing so, they hit upon a rare alchemy of creative ingenuity and mass appeal Rock to rave music and gospel via more adjacent genres such as soul and funk.
With a massively diverse palette of Black music influences, from psychedelic Rage back into it.” They sought to inject their established southern hip-hop template So it’s time to crank it up, put a little more “Hip-hop is real comfortable right now,”īenjamin – a.k.a. The landscape of hip-hop at the end of the decade, and felt that it was tooĬomplacent, relying on gangsta-rap cliché and increasingly stale tricks in theĬase all but a few exceptions. The studio in the spring of 1999, Andre Benjamin and Antwan Patton looked at That wouldĪll change with their fourth album, Stankonia, released in the autumn ofĢ000 and which propelled them to global superstardom. Kind of radio song that would ensure blanket coverage to reach outside of theirĮxisting fanbase, however big it was. Of calling-card track that would help them break international markets, or the Outside the United States was comparatively low, and they had not made any kind They had emerged not only as one of the most acclaimedĪuteurs in their genre, selling a million copies of each of their first three studioĪlbums and receiving glowing reviews from all quarters. Millennium dawned, Atlanta-based hip-hop duo Outkast were in a very