Thursday, May 2, 2013

2000's Jams (+5): Outkast “Unhappy” (2003)

10 years on, Speakerboxxx still rules as the less tedious and equally sprawling half of this decade's answer to The White Album (for properly displaying which of Outkast's members were responsible for their individual components, showcasing a proper encore to their brilliant 3-album stretch between 1996 and 2000, and providing the 2000's with its most beloved double-album.)

Jams like "Ghettomusick," "The Rooster," "The Way You Move," "Knowing" and ESPECIALLY the hugely underrated deep cut "Reset" (with samples of shaken spray-paint cans) still sound just as fresh today, and present something far deeper than Andre's forays into "bizarre for the sake of bizarre." The Love Below was an exciting as fuck moment in time that hasn't aged nearly as well as Speakerboxxx, although we still attest to our initial assessment: Both halves need each other in order to form their proper ying-and-yang cohesion, an important factor in what makes its sprawl so fascinating.

There are several "keys" to unlocking the heart of this album, but "Unhappy" is among our most favorite, placed towards the album's beginning and setting a tone that's subdued and pensive, yet playful and just as inventive as the artistic heights of their 90's material.



And for fun, here's the "Ghettomusick" video:

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