Outkast

As the new millennium approaches, OutKast have nothing left to prove. Their place in hip-hop history is more than secure: their mark is undeniable and indelible. With their first two records, "Southernplaylistcadillacmuzik" and especially the disorienting, brilliant "ATliens", they had once and for all legitimized the southern hip-hop scene, which until then had been unjustly regarded, despite standout acts (most notably Arrested Development), as subordinate to the more famous East and West Coasts.

With the towering "Aquemini", they showed just what they were made of, how deep their consciousness ran, how strong their awareness was, and how inexhaustible their cultural baggage. That baggage is a true bottomless well, spanning seemingly irreconcilable references and influences: disco, funk, gospel, rock, jazz, you name it. So what's missing to write a milestone? Simple: aim even higher in terms of hybridization while, at the same time, conquering the world.

If "Aquemini" is the record that brought OutKast their definitive consecration and global recognition from critics and the hip-hop world, two years later, with the legendary "Stankonia", came commercial and mainstream consecration. A genuine bath of fame and sales, with the album reaching number two on the overall Billboard chart and climbing high on charts worldwide, including a resounding number ten in the UK and number four in Canada. Numbers that were anything but predictable for a duo with such a personal approach to rap.

If the revolution of "Aquemini" was folding disparate, sophisticated elements into southern hip-hop, "Stankonia" finds André and Big Boi not only expanding their unstoppable whirlwind of influences even further, but making it catchier, flashier, more radio-friendly and dazzling. This was certainly achieved through the iconic singles "B.O.B." (platinum at home), "Ms. Jackson" (triple platinum at home, double platinum in the UK, quintuple platinum in Australia, etc.) and "So Fresh, So Clean" (platinum at home), but also through the overall mood of the record and its shimmering appeal.

André Benjamin is a hurricane of creativity; his urge to fold in references, live instrumentation, styles and contaminations knows no limits, acting on "Stankonia" like a kind of cosmic blender that swallows clashing materials and spits them back out reformulated and irresistible. Perfect for the turn-of-the-millennium market as much as for the most demanding hip-hop and alternative music listeners. Big Boi, meanwhile, brings his partner's flights of fancy back down to hip-hop's home planet.

From this seemingly contrasting approach comes a one-of-a-kind balance, destined to go down in the genre's history from the moment of its conception. So hard to replicate, in fact, that on the following record the duo would essentially "split under one roof", releasing a double album divided between the two members.

Released in October 2000 on LaFace Records, "Stankonia" was recorded and produced almost entirely by OutKast themselves in an Atlanta facility the duo had recently acquired, previously owned by r'n'b artist Bobby Brown, which would indeed be renamed "Stankonia Studios".

We mentioned André's irrepressible urge to plunge OutKast's hip-hop into a sprawling sea of influences ranging from funk to rave music, from psychedelia to gospel and rock, but OutKast's fourth album also expands their lyrical universe. There's the glitter and the coolness that were unmissable in turn-of-the-millennium hip-hop, but also the never-banal thoughts of two artists looking inward, probing their own human and political conscience, grappling with tough subjects like racism and fatherhood.

In just over a minute, "Intro" does exactly what its name suggests, plunging the listener into a futuristic, submerged world aptly named "Stankonia". There are sensual moans, spacey synthesizers, and above all mesmerizing vocals inviting the listener to bounce and float along.

Live, from the center of the Earth

Seven light-years below sea level we go

Welcome to Stankonia, the place from which all funky things come

Would you like to come?

Just enough time to settle in before being swept away by the explosive "Gasoline Dreams". Here André is the star of the show, delivering an overwhelming, raucous rap, at times sounding almost like he's braying into the microphone, while all around him swirl acid guitars, basslines and relentless percussion. Basically a deviant, psychotropic version of Run-DMC gone hard rock.

Don’t everybody like the smell of gasoline?

Well burn muthafucka burn American dreams

Don’t everybody like the taste of apple pie?

We’ll snap for yo’ slice of life I’m tellin’ ya why

I hear that Mother Nature now’s on birth control

The coldest pimp be looking for somebody to hold

The highway up to Heaven got a crook on the toll

Youth full of fire ain’t got nowhere to go, nowhere to go

We finally get to breathe again in the brief interlude "I’m Cool," where a female soul voice transforms the sensation of coldness conveyed by a hostile world into magnetism and sensuality, moving from cold to cool, from a feeling of unease to one of total mastery over circumstances.

It can only be followed by the cheeky, swaggering "So Fresh, So Clean," one of OutKast's biggest hits. The falsetto chorus repeated by André to the point of obsession, the vintage keyboard flourishes shifting like sand on the beach at low tide, Big Boi's lethal counterpoint: everything here is as simple as it is perfect. This time the radio doesn't stand a chance, and OutKast reach everywhere.

Ain’t nobody dope as me; I’m just so fresh, so clean

So fresh and so clean, clean

Don’t you think I’m so sexy? I’m just so fresh, so clean

So fresh and so clean, clean

Not content with that, the duo drop another heavyweight track right after. A rolling groove, silvery keyboards, little piano flourishes, deft scratching, effects as insistent as they are delicate, off-beat verses and a limping chorus form the backbone of a "Ms. Jackson" destined to cause havoc, helped along by an iconic, feline-themed video.

Me and your daughter got a special thang goin’ on

You say it’s puppy love; we say it’s full-grown (Arroof)

Hope that we feel this, feel this way forever

You can plan a pretty picnic but you can’t predict the weather

Ms. Jackson

And yet it's anything but a song to take lightly: the "Ms." of the title is the mother of Erykah Badu, with whom Benjamin had recently split, worried about the fate of her daughter as a single mother. Despite the breakup, Badu turns up offering one of the album's most valuable outside contributions. Her fluttering neo-soul vocals are the linchpin of the wonderful, carefree "Humble Mumble," finding a home amid the bright tropical rhythms and the rubbery flows of André and Big Boi.

But it's abundance and variety that truly dominate: from the psych-funk eroticism of "I’ll Call Before I Cum" to the swaggering southern hip-hop of "We Love Deez Hoez," through the breakbeat of "?" and the robotic-cosmic hallucinations of the alien soul-funk of "Toilet Tisha," not to mention the numerous atmospheric interludes.

Setting the hits aside, the most fully realized track might be the orgiastic psych-soul-funk-dub jam of the lengthy title track.

But don't be fooled into thinking OutKast have gone soft. On the cover of Stankonia, their eccentric silhouettes stand out against a colorless Stars and Stripes, a symbol of an America that is anything but fair and free.

And so Killer Mike and J-Sweet step in to give the album a dose of hardcore hip-hop firepower, their razor-sharp flows crashing against the dry beats of the already-mentioned "B.O.B." (an acronym for Bombs Over Baghdad), a track as fun as it is sharp, a puzzle of rhythmic somersaults, electric guitar solos, dangerous intersections of vocal lines and a refrain destined to echo through eternity.

Don’t pull the thang out, unless you plan to bang

Bombs over Baghdad!

Yeah, don’t even bang unless you plan to hit something

Bombs over Baghdad!

A track as effective on the dancefloor as it is fitting as an anthem for a generation that must find the strength to stand up and fight back against the abuses committed by those in power.

The ideal culmination of OutKast's stylistic expansion of their hybrid southern hip-hop, "Stankonia" is also a moment the Atlanta duo would never repeat. The group's two souls, André 3000 and Big Boi, would go on to pursue increasingly divergent paths, gifting their audience two more albums, including the double "Speakerboxxx/The Love Below," before closing the OutKast chapter for good.

At the heart of a period between the two millennia marked by contamination and widespread crossover, "Stankonia" still shines today with the intensity and variety typical of the most creative and original albums, combining a clear determination to break down boundaries and clichés with the ability to write formidable hits as well.

It's not just the Atlanta duo's masterpiece, but the vehicle through which southern aesthetics reached a broad, international audience, turning hip-hop into a platform for exploring countless other territories, all under the banner of an exuberant, playful and eclectic musical language connected both to black tradition and to contemporary sounds.

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23/10/2022