Tag Archives: outkast

#1264: OutKast – Spread

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‘Spread’ is a track from André 3000’s album, The Love Below. Technically his first solo record, but we all know it as one half of OutKast’s hefty Speakerboxxx/The Love Below double LP from 2003. It’s the only OutKast album I physically own. It’s an anecdote I’ve told before. I wanted the ‘Hey Ya!’ single as a present. My aunt got me the album instead. And I was only eight or something, so I didn’t have the bandwidth to sit down and listen to two hours and 15 minutes of music. Back then, ‘Hey Ya!’ and ‘Roses’ were enough for me. But somewhere along the timeline, I came across ‘Spread’ and thought it was a song I could see myself revisiting many a time. Think this initial feeling happened when I was playing FIFA while having my whole iTunes library on shuffle and the song came up. It was a time when I really had no responsibilities at all, believe me.

There’s a comment on the YouTube page where the above ‘Spread’ is, which says something along the lines of “André 3000 was definitely listening to Prince’s Sign o’ the Times when he was making this! laughingface emoji laughingface emoji” I listened to that album just a few months back, and I can see where that commenter is coming from. 3 Stacks even has a high-pitched vocal here like Prince uses on some tracks from Sign…. But the huge similarity comes in the lyrical subject matter. ‘Spread’ is about André 3000 eyeing a woman he likes that he immediately wants to have relations with, and he makes those feelings clear – be it in the spoken/talking first verse or the rapid-fire rapping second verse that comes after. I think we can at least appreciate that André wants there to be a mutual feeling of interest between he and this fascinating woman. But he wants the listener and the lady to know that he is ready to go to the bedroom and have a fantastic night of passion.

Thinking back to when I first heard the song, I’m gonna say that the first thing that grabbed my attention was the song’s chorus. Apart from the mood-setting keyboard intro, the chorus is the beginning section of the song – one in which André 3000 sings each respective line in a higher key, culminating in the soaring falsetto ‘Spread, spread for me’ lyric followed by the campy “I can’t wait to get you home’ refrain. It all got stuck in my head very quickly. The aforementioned second verse where 3 Stacks starts rapping like his life depends on it, so unexpectedly after the serenading opening verse, is a big highlight too. The way he delivers the words, matching the frenetic programmed drums behind it. Makes my head move in all directions. The track is the beginning of a little three-part suite in the album, with following skit ‘Where Are My Panties?’ capturing André’s and the woman’s internal thoughts during the early morning while they’re both lying in bed and ‘Prototype’ where he hear André contemplating on whether this lady could be the one for him. A good little run in this experience of an album.

#1140: OutKast – Roses

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I don’t know if anyone else has felt this, but I don’t see OutKast’s ‘Roses’ pop up in a topic of conversation anywhere these days. ‘Hey Ya!’… well, everyone knows it. And I’ll see ‘The Way You Move’ or ‘Prototype’ on TikToks and Instagram posts. Never ‘Roses’ though. Can’t understand it myself, ’cause I remember when it was being played everywhere. In the UK at least, once ‘Hey Ya!’ seemed to be fading away from airplay, ‘Roses’ came right in and got the roof raising again. The video was a mainstay on MTV Base. I’d be singing the chorus with friends during my years in primary school. It was funny stuff. I’ve got a lotta love for it still, never heard it to the point where it fell out of favour like I did with the other big OutKast hit of that time.

I guess, possibly like many, many people, the big appeal for my initial interest in the song came from its entertaining music video. Featuring cameos from Katt Williams, Paula Abdul and a bunch of recgonisable faces, it shows André 3000 performing the song onstage in a school auditorium with his “Love Below” troupe, while the ‘Caroline’ character in the song’s lyrics watches on among the other students. Big Boi and his Speakerboxxx crew crash the proceedings and a hilariously chaotic fight ensues. Katt Williams whisks Caroline away with his charming ways, leaving 3 Stacks screaming after her as he’s carried out of the building. When it was played on the TV, the video’s intro was usually cut out, which left out the reason why Big Boi’s gang goes to the school in the first place. It’s ’cause Caroline gives a “Maybe” response when Big Boi asks if she’ll be his valentine. Nice to have that plot hole sorted out.

The song is essentially a roast of this girl called Caroline, who’s not based on a real person but is rather a representation of all those beautiful women who possess ugly personalities. 3000 pulls off a majorly expressive vocal take, stretching out his syllables, wailing and adlibbing in the background (particularly in the background during the final chorus), providing his own ooh-ooh backing vocals at points. Might even come off as unhinged at times, the way he changes his delivery so much. Must be symbolic of how these Caroline-types make the guy feel. Big Boi joins in and reinforces the song’s theme with the only appearance he makes on the Love Below half of the duo’s 2003 double album. He makes his mark in the time he has. Though the ‘crazy bitch’ outro he delivers might be pushing it a bit. I can take it, though.

#1119: OutKast ft. Khujo Goodie & Cee-Lo – Reset

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Keen-eyed readers will notice that whenever I’ve written about an OutKast song on here, they’ve always been from the duo’s Speakerboxxx/The Love Below double album from 2003. That was a big, big deal. I was eight at the time, but you couldn’t escape ‘Hey Ya!’ or ‘Roses’ when those songs were around. Eight-year-old me liked the former so much, I wanted the single. My aunt got me the double album instead. I don’t think she knew the difference between a single and an album. She must have just seen ‘OutKast’ in the shop and took the first thing she saw. I didn’t have the attention span for 135 minutes of music, so it wasn’t until years later that I really sat down and gave the solo efforts of Big Boi and André 3000 my undivided attention.

If you dig deeper on here, you’ll find the majority of songs I’ve covered are from the Speakerboxxx half. So, I guess that means I like it more than The Love Below? I’m not too sure. They’re both so different from each other, it’s hard to compare. I think having liked Sir Lucious Left Foot from the get-go familiarised me to Big Boi’s style, and so it seemed like a breeze to listen through compared to 3000’s more experimental effort. ‘Reset’ is another number from Speakerboxxx. It’s not one that I have a deep connection with. In fact, the first time I think I truly listened to it was when I was on my old computer listening to my iTunes library on shuffle, while simultaneously playing a FIFA game on my PlayStation 2. There must have been no one in the house at the time, and I must have been getting bored of the game soundtrack. That hushed chorus delivered by singer Debra Killings came in along with the bloopy keyboard that mirrored the vocal melody, and I think I was instantly hooked. The whole track is smooth to the core. Very relaxing. But also very contemplative, reflective and a bit philosophical too.

Overall, the track concerns the theme of being able to take the good with the bad and having to accept that at some point, times will be incredibly tough before they get better. Big Boi starts things off by stating that things get tough from the minute you’re born. Unless you’re a twin, you’re born into this world alone and you have to fend for yourself once the umbilical cord’s cut and you’re separated from your mother. He states that from the moment fertilization occurs we’re living beings and how a fleeting sexual moment turns into a lifelong commitment very easily. Khujo Goodie shouts out his “homies on the sick side” who are dying over gang wars and his own displeasure with racists and fakers. And then Cee-Lo Green gets the final say, giving an advisory verse to not give into temptations and addictions, and to focus on the things important to you that make life worth living. This could very well have ended Speakerboxxx’s proceedings, but ‘Last Call’ arrives a couple tracks later to bring things to more of a celebratory end. But for those minutes that ‘Reset’ lasts for, it doesn’t fail in making you get all existential.

#711: OutKast ft. Slimm Calhoun, Lil’ Jon & The Eastside Boyz, & Mello – Last Call

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‘Last Call’ is the last proper song on the Speakerboxxx half of OutKast’s double album before being followed by a ‘postlude’ for the track ‘Bowtie’ from earlier. It’s a great posse track, dedicated to going to the club and getting drunk until the lights turn on and it’s time to go home. Slimm Calhoun and Mello are on here, and I have never heard anything by them or about them since. They have some nice verses, nothing to lyrical to get your head around, but perfectly suited for the ‘good times are here’ vibe that the song ultimately goes for. Lil’ Jon is also there being Lil’ Jon.

Recorded at a point where Big Boi and André 3000 were beginning to go in different directions, Speakerboxxx and The Love Below act as near solo albums for the two respective artists. There are only a few points where 3000 appears on Speakerboxxx; he does so on this track though in the role of producer. So I guess it’s him we have to thank for that fantastic synth line that repeats during the choruses, the bouncing rhythm set by the drums and those backing horns that mirror the bassline.

This is another song I didn’t appreciate until way down the line. Nothing to heavy or sentimental about it. Just a good party song. And we all need that sometimes.

#705: OutKast – Knowing

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I didn’t intend to receive Speakerboxxx/The Love Below as a Christmas present in 2003. I was eight years old and ‘Hey Ya!’ was everywhere. I just wanted the single; my aunt got me the full double album instead. At that young age, I had no patience to listen to the whole thing. A dumb decision, no doubt. But kids don’t know any better at that age. Fast forward to about 2010 – I was fifteen, playing FIFA a lot of the time due to no one being in the house. I’d play with my iTunes library on shuffle in my ears. ‘Knowing’ came up one day and it would regularly play on other days. I realised there that it was a jam.

‘Knowing’ is the thirteenth track on the Speakerboxxx half of the album, which is more or less a Big Boi solo album with The Love Below being André 3000’s. There are only a few moments where the two members are on each others tracks throughout the double album; ‘Knowing’ is one of them, with Andre 3K singing the chorus and providing the distorted “From this point on, it only gets rougher” line. Big Boi takes the lead on the verses and tells a story of a woman named Wanda who gets her money by stripping, spends it all on clothes and accessories when she could be spending it on food and things that actually matter. She goes on to buy a car but then loses her job, turns to robbing to earn some cash but leaves some ID at one occasion and gets her comeuppance when she gets caught out.

It’s not the most optimistic of songs. But it’s real. It’s an unfortunate tale of a person in the midst of a community filled with people who are struggling and trying their best to get by. The beat is killer with those echoing clicks and emphatic bass, and with Andre 3000’s vocals on top it creates a very uneasy and quite anxious tone. Big Boi does his natural thing of telling a story with impeccable flow and wordplay and rapid fire flow. It’s always best when the two members are on a song together, and this is a prime example.

And that’s it for the Ks. That wasn’t very long, only took a month to get through them all. The Ls will roll in soon.