Continuing Cullen Wade's series, revisiting albums randomly chosen from a list of 180 CDs in his basement. If you are confused about what's happening or why it's happening on this blog, click here for an intro.
I bought this on release day at the storied Mushroom record store/headshop on Broadway St. in uptown New Orleans, a few blocks from Loyola University during my ill-fated 1st semester of college. The nation was in the grip of "Hey Ya!"-mania, & once the public had some time to digest the album, there were 2 prevailing schools of thought. The more mainstream opinion was that The Love Below was a bracing, wildly innovative sprawl, while Speakerboxxx was dull & pedestrian by comparison, almost an afterthought. (When the double album won the Grammy for Album of the Year, the presenter announced The Love Below with no mention of Speakerboxxx, which had to hurt Antwan's feelings.) The second opinion, held by salty music heads & contrarian hiphoppers like myself, was that Big Boi's side was an honest, solidly executed rap album compared to Dre's bloated, pretentious offering.
Today's verdict? Honestly, they're both kind of bloated, but Big Boi's has more highlights. Twan himself sets the production tone with swinging standouts like "Bowtie" & "The Rooster," keeping the Dungeon Family horn sound intact even though there's no actual ONP beats on this record. "Bust" is another impressive Big Boi production, with rock guitars balanced against Mobb Deep drums & Twan's pitched-down vocal matching the aggression of pre-woke af Killer Mike. It's too bad "Knowing" is another ode to slut-shaming, because it's one of Antwan's best beats: elastic bass & acoustic guitar with his trademark claves, similar to the short-lived work he'd do with Bubba Sparxxx a few years later. On this listen I also vibed with "War," where he waxes sociopolitical over a crinkly synth by Mr. DJ, & "Reset," a tender song about new beginnings where Cee-Lo absolutely floated--you know you did something right when you're the best feature on an album that has a Jay-Z verse in the mix.
I wish people had made as big a deal about Big Boi's production on his side as they did about how Dre produced The Love Below in its entirety; instead they more often pointed out that Dre had 3 of his own beats on Speakerboxxx. The Outkast sound has always been colorful & organic, but these 3 beats ("Ghetto Musick," "Church" & "Last Call") are bright & shiny but not alive, like a robotic carnival. I respect Antwan's attempt to reassure everybody that Outkast was still very much a group (he addresses it multiple times in the album's lyrics) but the sad truth is that they were drifting apart stylistically, & Dre's 3 contributions to Speakerboxxx show it.
When I listened to The Love Below, the name that came to mind most often was Prince. 3Stacks clearly wanted to emulate the Purple One in tone & subject matter as well as stylistic sprawl, & the best tracks come close to doing it. He clearly had so much fun here playing with jazz, soul, drum & bass, psychedelic rock & futurefunk, & the artist's enthusiasm almost makes up for the excessive length & problematic elements. One thing you can't accuse him of, though, is lack of focus.
(Before we go any further, the official lyric is "Roses really smell like boo-boo"!?!? I've thought it was "poo-poo" for damn near 20 years! Anyway that song, like a lot of songs on here, have a secret weapon in composer Kevin Kendrick's keyboards & arrangements.)
Thankfully for an album this long, Dre pulls off some late-album highlights in "Love in War," with its militaristic snare rolls, distorted 808 kicks & swooning strings, pretty on the nose but a good listen; "Dracula's Wedding," the closest he comes to sounding like Prince; "Take Off Your Cool," an acoustic song with a sultry Norah Jones feature & a good ass message; "Vibrate," a spacey ode to masturbation; & the closer, which I'll get to in a minute. First I have to point out where the album falls on its fucking face, right after the two massive singles, the piece of shit known as "Behold a Lady."
"Where do all the good girls go?" asks 3Stacks. "The classic lady, a rare breed indeed." Gtfoh bro. He goes on to discuss how our grandchildren won't be able to see a real lady outside of a museum or whatever. This is the dark side of Dre's "woman-friendly rapper" insidious nice-guy image that Drake has picked up & run with since André's withdrawal from the spotlight. Stop policing women's behavior dude, it's not your lane. Between the stupid intro, repetitive, unexciting beat, offkey crooning & conservative ass message, this whole song sucks. Like Skillz said, throw it in the trash.
Now we come to the closer, "A Life in the Day of Benjamin André (Incomplete)," which sums up everything right about The Love Below and points out everything wrong with it. Dre's storytelling acumen is on beautiful display here, his knack for offhanded metaphor & surprising lyrical detail, and the beat is just left-field enough to be interesting but it still knocks. It reminds us how good a rapper 3Stacks is, and how little of it he does on The Love Below. It's over 20 minutes longer than Speakerboxxx, features an equivalent level of production, & about 92% less rapping. I'm sorry if this is a basic take y'all, I know he's a creative genius etc. etc....I like André 3000 better when he raps.
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