Tag Archives: sir lucious left foot: the son of chico dusty

#1209: Big Boi ft. Cutty – Shutterbugg

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I wish I could say I was there and witnessed all the hype leading up to the release of Big Boi’s Lucious Left Foot album. I would have been 15 at the time, I was a functioning person then and aware of my surroundings to an extent. But, being a teenager, I was a lot more excited by Eminem’s new LP that had been released a couple weeks before. Back in school, Eminem was everyone’s favourite rapper. The music gave us something to talk and rave about. Yeah, Recovery hasn’t aged all that well. I was personally going through a real Beatles phase too. So I mention all of this to say I missed out on the obvious excitement there must have been, leading up to the first solo release by either of the members of OutKast.

But I did see the music video for ‘Shutterbugg’ one day around that time. Where it was, I couldn’t tell you. MTV Base, The Box. I want to say the latter channel. It might have actually been the day it premiered on Big Boi’s YouTube channel. Whatever it was, it was through the video that I heard the song for the first time, and the hyperbolic kid I was then thought, “Wow, we’re really living in the future now.” It was the start of the 2010s, it was an exciting time. The camera quality looked HD before HD was existing. Big Boi was looking clean. There’s a kaleidoscopic Cadillac in there at one point. In general, a wide variation of very cool imagery occurs in the video’s duration. It really holds up today. One of those prime examples where it somehow heightens the listening experience. And even without the video, ‘Shutterbugg’ has always been a hit. Not in the mainstream, commercial way (although if it wasn’t that, it shoulda been), but in the way that it immediately caught my attention ’cause of the musical elements and all.

The track’s an ode to the good times had by the ladies and gentlemen of the nightclubs, with Big Boi calling out to all them to get to dancing, “throw [their] deuces” (make peace signs) for the titular “shutterbuggs” (paparazzi). Big Boi delivers two great verses, the first in which he tells us how he’s the coolest person you know, with the second taking place from his point of view while in the club. Not sure if Cutty ever did anything after this song, but he has a nice little feature for the bridge. But what I always thought was the real highlight of the whole thing was the predominant use of the talkbox. In the 2000s, I don’t think anyone was using the talkbox anywhere in any kind of music. But suddenly here it was and used to great effect. The whole track is a sort of throwback in terms of the instruments used, and yet has always continued to sound so, so fresh.

#921: Big Boi ft. B.o.B & Joi – Night Night

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Who would wanna go back to 2010? In some ways I wouldn’t mind, in others the answer would be a big nope. But it wasn’t such a bad time to be alive. I think there was some optimism going into what was a new decade. Plus there was all the new music to look forward to. That year saw the release of Big Boi’s debut album, Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty, his first since OutKast fizzled out about four years prior. Had it not been overshadowed by My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy a few months later, it was probably bound to go down as the greatest hip-hop album of that year. It’s an album where Big Boi’s flexing on almost every track, telling the listener how good he is at his craft, how other rappers should just stop when they come up against him. No surprise he does it here on the album’s 12th track, ‘Night Night’.

My first experience with the track would have been in 2010 when a friend of mine from school told me I’d be into it. He was always obsessed with finding the newest hip-hop/R&B music, and he knew I was into that stuff to, so just passed on the word. Went to YouTube and ‘Night Night’ was there, but was uploaded with a higher pitch so it could get past copyright laws. You could get away with that back in those days. In fact, it was very similar to this. So for a few years I thought that’s how the song was recorded. But even then I thought the track sounded good. B.o.B came in clutch on the hook. This was when it was cool to listen to B.o.B, before he went on about how he believed the world was flat and had beef with Neil deGrasse Tyson. The instrumental slapped, still does I believe, carried by that driving rhythm and those horn-like synthesizers. The general gist of the entire track is that Big Boi’s going to put his competition to sleep with his bars and flows, hence the song title. Not in the way that they’ll be bored. More in the stunned-into-submission-that-they-lie-down-and-never-try-again kind of way.

It wasn’t for a couple years that I listened to the album in full and was surprised by how it really sounded. GCSEs and exams got in the way. Either way, the song still holds up as it did 12 years ago. I use Spotify, do with that information what you will, and I’m really surprised to see that the track has the least amount of listens on the album. Even less than the minute and a half intro song that starts it off. I’ve always thought the track was potentially single worthy. I can only put it down to the skit at the beginning. Probably should have been tacked onto the end of the preceding song. It lasts only ten seconds though. I guess people don’t have the patience anymore.

My iPod #380: Big Boi ft. Vonnegutt – Follow Us

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Honestly, I got nothing to say about this track. I heard it when I was listening through “Sir Lucious” for the first time, and it sounded like a highlight to me.

On a lot of tracks on the album, Big Boi is very boastful and is always eager to tell you just how sick he is. It is no different on this one, going on to compare his rhymes and rapping to a vicious pitbull attack and sending a message to those who thought he wouldn’t do so well solo without his Outkast partner André 3000. Well he proved them wrong, and along with fellow label act Vonnegutt (or at least that group’s lead singer) he calls to you to follow him and listen to this song and other good music in general, because that is the only way you will learn.

This is a good hip-hop song, from a great hip-hop album. Admittedly, I don’t know all the words to the verses and only sing along to the chorus…. but I still know good music when I hear it. This qualifies.

My iPod #233: Big Boi – Daddy Fat Sax

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“Daddy Fat Sax” is the second track from Big Boi’s debut solo album “Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty”, released back in 2010.

Took me quite a while to listen to the album. Don’t know why. “Shutterbugg” was released as the first single from it, and I liked that. I still do. It’s funky. The album got good reviews too, being cited as one of the best hip-hop albums to be released in the new decade. That was before Mr. West released “Dark Fantasy” though and received 10/10 ratings and five stars from every critic or website to exist.

But it was in 2012 (during the opening ceremony of the London Olympics if I remember correctly) that I thought I might as well listen to it. That ceremony went on for ages anyway.

The rapper announces himself to the world (“It is I, the B-I-G, the B-O-I”) before telling the listener on how he has persevered, looked at the bigger picture, and maintained his game that fellow rappers fathom on his awesomeness. Scratches by the DJ Cutmaster Swiff slide in the song title during the chorus along with samples from “Xplosion“, a song from “Stankonia“. It all told us that Big Boi was certainly doing fine and that OutKast was still a part of him, even though he and André hadn’t been together for four years at that point.

Boasting is a theme that occurs throughout the album. It shows right in the last line of the preceding introduction, but it’s from this track and onwards that Big Boi never lets up. And that’s good. Being half of one of hip hop’s most respected groups, I would imagine life is swell. I think he’s allowed to brag; he does it with such effortless flow too. My goodness.

My iPod #62 & #63: Paul & Linda McCartney – The Back Seat of My Car / Big Boi – Back Up Plan

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Right. I have some explaining to do.

Yesterday I went out with friends to watch “Man of Steel”, the new Superman movie. I was out for a long time, I couldn’t put out my post and for that, I apologise to the small number of people who actually view this blog.

To be honest the film wasn’t that good; I don’t see what all the fuss is about.

Today, I bring a special two-in-one post. Only to make up for yesterday though, don’t be expecting anything more.

“Ram” is the second album released by Paul McCartney after The Beatles split in 1970. However, it was credited to both he and his wife Linda, and therefore doesn’t really count as a solo album.

“Ram” is one of the happiest albums I’ve listened to. Whereas “McCartney”, his first album, was more of a collection of old songs he had written whilst he was still in The Beatles, “Ram” on the other hand gave off a sense of freedom and also a sense of closure. Paul had ‘found his love awake and waiting to be’ and was ready to take things head on.

“The Back Seat of My Car” is the final track on the album, and probably the most emotional. Love is a theme that runs throughout, but this is when it reaches its peak.

The story in the song is pretty simple. The couple have dreams of getting away ‘along the highway’ to ‘Mexico City’ but prefer making out in the back seat of a car unbeknownst to the girl’s father who is always nagging at them. Awww. How romantic is that?

Sure, the story is short and sweet. The actual composition is beautifully performed, with calming and soothing vocals by Paul and slight changes in tempo here and there culminating in an audience participation section and a rocking outro make it perfect for the album closer.

Also, the song contains what is probably the best vocal delivered by McCartney. Ever.

I can’t describe it very well, just listen to it; you’ll get what I mean.

John Lennon thought this was one out of several songs on the album on “Ram” that was aimed at him and Yoko, it isn’t, but you can hear his thoughts about it if you search for it on YouTube.

Big Boi – Back Up Plan

Put that bitch in smash mode.
Ooh, another closing track from an album.
“Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty” was Big Boi’s debut in 2010. I wrote a bit about it in my previous Big Boi post, but all you need to know is that it was released and a lot of people liked it.
It has a completely opposite message compared to Paul McCartney. This time around, Big Boi’s been cheated on or dumped or whatever, and the relationship has ended. But what does he do? He only picks himself up, dusts himself off and moves on to a new one. That being his ‘back up plan’.
That is pretty much all I can say about the song. Big Boi basically tells the story of the relationship in the song, so again listen to it. It’s a confident closer, I enjoy it. What could go wrong?

I hope that makes up for everything.Until tomorrow.

Jamie.