Happy 20th Anniversary to OutKast’s fourth studio album Stankonia, originally released October 31, 2000.
What a strange voyage OutKast took in the first six or seven years of its existence. After releasing their breakthrough debut album Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik in 1994, “André 3000” Benjamin and Antwan “Big Boi” Patton went from young and brash southern hip-hop junkies to one of the most iconic groups on the planet. In tributes to ATLiens (1996) and Aquemini (1998), we here at Albumism have chronicled how the group evolved, becoming nearly unrecognizable from its earliest incarnation. But with Stankonia, their fourth album released two decades ago, they went places no other hip-hop group was expected to go, and precious few have even attempted to go since.
Stankonia is hard to describe, existing as a fever dream mash-up of countless musical styles and elements, but still feeling like a hip-hop album. OutKast had helped to first put the Atlanta hip-hop scene on the map, and it had grown and flourished in the years that followed. But in 2000, when other Southern rappers were making music for their audience to “bounce” to, OutKast were again expanding its scope and sound, taking its audience on yet another reality-altering journey. All of its sprawl and ambition pays off, as Stankonia is among the best albums released in both the ’00s and the entire 21st century.
A big part of Stankonia’s lore has to do with the recording process. Rather than renting an outside studio, the pair purchased one of Bobby Brown’s recording studios in Atlanta, re-naming it Stankonia (I don’t know if the album or the studio name came first). André 3000 and Big Boi took a year to put together the project, no longer constrained by time limits and rental fees. The set-up allowed the group to flourish, as the pair teamed with Mr. DJ (the group’s longtime DJ) to form Earthtone III. As a unit, they handled most of the album’s production on their own, bringing in many local musicians to play on the album to help achieve their vision.
On the mic, Big Boi remained the workman of the group, utilizing his deep southern drawl and straightforward approach to rhyming. Meanwhile, André 3000 went more out there, incorporating more singing into his delivery and getting even more abstract in his approach to their subject matter.
Much like the Aquemini sessions, OutKast experimented with a lot of musical styles while recording Stankonia. Their previous album turned heads with songs like “Liberation” and “SpottieOttieDopaliscious,” both considered pretty far outside the realm of what most major label rap groups would sound like. Stankonia is even more experimental. Some of the tracks on the project are unlike anything I’d ever heard before, but still sound uniquely Southern, and moreover, uniquely OutKast.
For example, “B.O.B.” a.k.a. “Bombs Over Baghdad,” could have only ever been recorded by the group. The song almost defies description, as thinking about all of its elements almost makes it seem unreal. The track pulses away at 155 beats per minute, incorporating elements of Kraftwerk-inspired proto-electronic music and Drum & Bass. There’s a lengthy guitar solo and scratch breakdown by Mr. DJ. And the song comes to a close with soaring vocals from a full gospel chorus.
The duo keep pace the entire track, rapping along at warp speeds about learning to navigate life in the roughest areas of Atlanta so that they can succeed as artists. While André 3000 muses about “sitting in a drop-top, soaking wet in a silk suit, trying not to sweat,” Big Boi encourages his peers to “make a business for yourself, boy, set some goals / Make a fat diamond out of dusty coal.”
“Ms. Jackson” is also quintessentially OutKast, a famous dedication to their “Baby’s Mama’s Mamas.” Winner of a GRAMMY award for Best Rap Performance by Duo or Group, it’s unorthodox for a highly successful single, with its twisted keyboards and slippery drums. Both Big Boi and André drew from their own personal experiences to write their verses, reflecting on strained relationships that become victims of bitter arguments between two people that once loved each other. Big Boi’s verse is extremely raw, as he vents his frustrations at the mother of his children, struggling to refer to her as a “lady,” despite the bad blood between them. André’s verse addresses the mother of Erykah Badu, lamenting that a relationship that he believed would last forever has now dissolved, but still resolving to be involved in the life of his son.
Organized Noize produce a handful of songs on Stankonia. The acclaimed production team is credited for “discovering” and mentoring the pair and worked behind the boards for much of their earlier material that made the group household names. However, as time went on, the duo assumed production duties themselves, reducing Organized Noize’s role in crafting the tone of their albums. Their work on Stankonia is clearly dope, but considerably more conventional.
The more established approach works on tracks like “So Fresh, So Clean,” another of the album’s highly successful singles. The track is a laid-back ode to just being cool. How cool you ask? Cooler than Freddie Jackson sipping a milkshake in a snowstorm. That’s pretty damn cool.
The ONP-produced “Spaghetti Junction” is sufficiently cool as well, with Big Boi and André 3000 trading lines over lush horns and guitar, reflecting on the difficulties that the system presents for young Black men seeking to escape poverty and make better lives for themselves and their families. “We Luv Deez Hoez,” a posse cut about seeking out female attention, doesn’t work as well. Big Boi delivers a humorous opening verse, but the song seems out of place on the album.
OutKast and Earthtone III provide some “Lincoln Town Car, El Dorado Funk,” putting the dirt in a very Dirty South album. Songs like “Gangsta Shit” and “Xplosion” (featuring Cypress Hill’s B-Real) are aptly gritty, coming “harder than a n***a trying to impress God,” and taking the listeners to the darkest places on Stankonia.
Killer Mike makes his major label debut on the synth-driven “Snappin’ and Trappin’,” trading verses with Big Boi. The two have clear chemistry, which would carry on throughout the next two decades. For his part, Killer Mike comes into the major leagues fully formed and with the clear potential to be a star. “This here is Slum Lordz, we make your terrific shit tragic,” he raps. “My pen and pixel make violence more graphic / I take raw coke, cook it crack, Saran Wrap it / One motherfucking verse and already it’s a classic.”
Still, Stankonia is at its best when OutKast comes at the audience from unexpected angles. The quirky “I’ll Call Before I Come” is often an overlooked entry on the album, and one of my personal favorites. For a song about fucking, both members of the group are pretty gentlemanly, as André declares his preference for “old school, regular draws” and Big Boi states that a woman’s sexual satisfaction is of paramount importance. With Eco and Gangsta Boo appearing to detail their fantasies and desires, the song is also equal opportunity in its freakiness. I also love the instrumentation for the track, which sounds like it could have been lifted from a late era Sly Stone song or some late ’70s funk.
“Humble Mumble,” bizarre in its own right, is anchored by upbeat Caribbean-influenced grooves and unexpected beat shifts. In terms of subject matter, the track is all over the place, but still feels coherent. While Big Boi addresses coping with adversity in the pursuit of one’s goals, André ponders the complexities and contradictory nature of everything from hip-hop music to life itself. The song also features the vocal talents of Badu, who apparently was on good enough terms with André to contribute both the chorus and a melodic final verse to the song.
OutKast reach deep into their bag of way-out funk tracks as Stankonia draws to a close. First is “Toliet Tisha,” the sorrowful ballad of the late 14-year-old Tisha. Damn, we miss her. Musically, the song sounds lifted from a mid-1990s Prince album. Amongst layers of watery synths and guitars, André sings through heavy vocal distortion, voice nearly unrecognizable, and Big Boi delivers a harrowing spoken-word verse. Together, they narrate a tale of an unwanted teenage pregnancy, and the heartrending outcome. The song is legitimately sad but doesn’t wallow in tragedy for its own sake.
“Slum Beautiful” is another personal favorite on the album, a psychedelic dedication to their female companions. The song oozes cool, as André, Big Boi, and Goodie Mob’s Cee-Lo wax philosophic about the effects that the objects of their affection have on their mentalities. Back then, Cee-Lo could still be considered one of the best emcees around, and his vivid and awestruck verse is a highlight. The musical backdrop is a mix of Jimi Hendrix and Graham Central Station, as backward-masked guitars mix with a resonant bassline and complex percussion.
The album ends with the funk-drenched title track a.k.a. “Stank Love.” Clearly inspired by late ’70s/early ’80s P-Funk ballads, André and Sleepy Brown channel George Clinton and Garry Shider, inviting the objections of their affection to release their inhibitions and soar with the kites in the sky through their freaky love. The song is mostly instrumental, rattling with gurgling bass and keyboards, and ghostly voices wail. Big Rube delivers an appropriately way-out spoken word piece, speaking of an act of love so profound that it’s “engulfing, encompassing like a cataclysmic shockwave of an impact so deep, but not one of destruction, but of creation.” The song doesn’t so much as end as it fades out into the ether, remaining with the listeners as it echoes through the speakers.
In some ways, Stankonia is the “final” OutKast album, as the group followed it up with the Speakerboxxx/The Love Below project (2003), a combination of solo albums for each of the duo. They effectively broke up afterwards, only reuniting to release the 2006 Idlewild soundtrack, which was largely phoned in. Suffice to say that OutKast went out as a group on a high note here, having travelled just about everywhere there was to go, and treating their followers to a hell of a journey. People still clamor for another OutKast album, but I personally feel like they went out on top. Always leave them wanting more.
LISTEN: