Daily Cardinal Artists of the Decade #9—Outkast
With “Hey Ya!,” even the scope of the accomplishment was an accomplishment. It was a rap song about sexual politics memorized by blue-haired grandmothers, a pop song written in the exceedingly non-standard 11/4 time that became a smash hit. On a purely sociological level, a purely academic level, a never-actually-needing-to-listen-to-the-song level, “Hey Ya!” is pretty amazing. At least it might be—you’d need to find someone who didn’t hear it within a week of its release to prove it. And “Hey Ya!” was so damned catchy that that poor soul would be, on a purely sociological, academic level, pretty amazing.
The song was a surprise, but it wasn’t any surprise that Outkast was the band to write it. With the possible exception of the White Stripes, they were the only band in a generation to release three consecutive seminal albums. This decade saw the aftermath of the first, 1998’s Aquemini, the duo’s true breakthrough in 2000’s Stankonia, and finally a magnum opus in the “Hey Ya!”-sporting 2003 dual album Speakerboxx/ The Love Below. And through it all, they showed spectacular range. After all, “B.O.B (Bombs Over Baghdad)” was a frantically-rapped, 150+ beats-per-minute track best remembered for a choral hook and for the fact that it wasn’t their most far-reaching success.
Not that Outkast particularly needed to push the envelope of pop-hip hop to produce smart music. Their singles represented the most well-conceived lyricism on the radio dial more than once—even if the line “Shake it like a Polaroid picture” once prompted a Polaroid press release reminding camera owners that Outkast’s advice might cause their photographs’ ink to run. There may never be a song that so perfectly describes the feeling of failure as relationships fall apart as “Ms. Jackson,” Andre 3000’s post-mortem to his relationship with Erykah Badu.
Though Outkast was one of the indispensible bands of the decade, they were perhaps the least likely. Often cast as a Lennon and McCartney for the millennium, the two were complementary opposites. Antwan “Big Boi” Patton was a grounded genre loyalist tied to the distinct style he helped create. Andre “3000” Benjamin was the dreamer, blending disparate influences into something only barely hip hop. But it was clear they were destined to work together—how else could two literate, extremely talented rappers who like argyle find each other?
Either working together on Stankonia or apart, recording separate disks for Speakerboxxx/Love Below in separate styles, Outkast’s whole was always more than the sum of its parts. The decade ends with Outkast having penned two of its best albums and three (“B.O.B.” “Hey Ya!,” “Ms. Jackson”) of its best singles.
-Joe Uchill, Arts Editor, 2004
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