The Optical Files #12: Outkast - Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik (1994)

Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik is the Illmatic of the south. It dropped exactly 1 week after that epochal Nas album, & signaled the same thing: regional hiphop fully emerging into a '90s identity, refining the best parts of the '80s styles and innovating with an exacting level of craftsmanship, shepherded by the voices of ambitious teenagers. It's a testament to the south's enduring sonic influence on hiphop that of the transformational '90s albums for each region (Illmatic & Enter the 36 Chambers for NYC, The Chronic for the west coast, etc.) Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik still sounds the most modern.

The album introduced Big Boi & Andre 3000's left-field lyricism & southern-fried flows, but it also introduced Organized Noize, who produced every track on the album & left an enormous footprint on hiphop production in general, not just in the south. The ONP sound can be summed up as "everything is alive," a breathing organic approach to production & a breath of fresh air compared to the robotic sound that some sample-less hiphop tends to fall into. After the opening 2 songs (the hard rock-inflected "Myintrotoletuknow" & "Ain't No Thang," both featuring Craig Love's searing guitar & cuts by Mr. DJ), the album settles into deep southern funk with the title track, & this is the sonic space it will continue to occupy. Aside from programmed drums & keyboards, most of the instruments are played live, & you can hear the influence of Rap-A-Lot Records & Mike Dean, especially in the rap-less "Funky Ride," which features an extended guitar solo by Edward Stroud.

The two rappers are still a bit immature both in terms of sound & subject matter. Andre uses a huskier chest voice here, & Antwan is pitched higher--these positions would reverse as early as the next album. The lyrical topics have a lot to do with being teenagers: chasing girls, smoking weed, deciding whether to drop out of school--but all shot through the slightly cracked dutch-angle lens of 2 unconventional writers. The gangsta posturing found on "Ain't No Thang" & others here didn't last long--Twan & Dre never quite stopped writing about street violence, but it was never with the braggadocious tone we hear here.

Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik isn't the best, most original, or most fully realized Outkast album, but it is the most modest & straightforward, & it laid the groundwork for all that was to come.