49. OutKast, "Aquemini"

 

I'm not sure exactly how, but this album just feels Southern, which is, I guess, obvious, given that OutKast is from Atlanta and they were at the forefront of Southern rap.  There are very obvious Southern nods, like the harmonica-and-handclaps breakdown in the middle of "Rosa Parks," itself referencing a pivotal event in the history of the South, which OutKast appeared to use as a metaphor for their own success:

Ah ha, hush that fuss
Everybody move to the back of the bus
Do you wanna bump and slump with us?
We the type of people make the club get crunk
Ah ha, hush that fuss
Everybody move to the back of the bus
Do you wanna bump and slump with us?
We the type of people make the club get crunk

Parks herself was not pleased about the band using her name without her permission and sued their label, LaFace Records.  After years of litigation, the case eventually settled, with OutKast and the label giving Parks a cash settlement and agreeing to work with her charitable interests.

The first single, "Skew It on the Bar-B," with Raekwon guesting, has some of Andre 3000's typically adept wordplay:

I'm sorry like Atari, who's the cousin to Coleco

Vision, caught a RICO, back on the street like Chico

DeBarge, he large and got a 'Lac in the garage

Few parts here and there, I declare hard

My Lord, one at Clark, one at Spelman

Both know each other and it's cool, you can tell when

He step off in the party, women jump for joy

But all the wild niggas scheming, they gon' jump the boy

"Aquemini," the title track, a portmanteau of the Andre and Big Boi's astrological signs, more or less typifies what I mean by "Southern-sounding."  It's languid and head-lolling, and feels like you're sitting outside on a humid, slow day.  "West Savannah" is more explicitly Southern, named after Boi's hometown, and is pretty much autobiographical, with great details like "I'm just a playa like that, my jeans was sharply creased/I got a fresh white t-shirt and my cap is slightly pointed East."  

Andre was apparently listening to a lot of reggae during the recording of this record and it shows up in "SpottieOttieDopaliscious," a brilliantly instrumented, horn-punctuated jam about a girl, of course, whose "neck was smelling sweeter than a plate of yams with extra syrup" and had "eyes beaming like four karats apiece."

Speaking of horns, this album is also fascinating in its use of live instrumentation as opposed to samples.  In particular, I love the fuzzed-out psych guitar that reels and wails throughout, sounding like OutKast lured Jimi Hendrix into the studio and sold him on their vision of a postmodern rap (Jimi would have loved this shit, I will bet you anything).

In this era of OutKast, I have to say I love Stankonia more, but this album is just so interesting and overflowing with musical ideas that it's impossible to get out of your mind.  They spent years in the studio, constantly experimenting, keeping what worked, discarding what didn't, and the effort shows.  Maybe this really is the hip hop Sergeant Pepper's.

Is this album in my personal Top 100? I'm not worthy.