“All aboard! Or all y’all bored?” yells Andre Benjamin on the ninth track of last year’s underwhelming record Idlewild. For the first time in OutKast’s career, yes; we were bored. Fine, second. “The Land of One Million Drums” from the Scooby Doo soundtrack was the first.
The record capped off a sharp decline in OutKast’s production as a whole and specifically Andre’s rapping career, as both members continued focusing on side projects and Andre refused to tour. Now, Idlewildwasn’t trash, but placed relatively next to other Dungeon Family albums, it sits near the lower end. In terms of 2006’s rap albums, it stood out, but that’s mostly because Young Joc is horrible and Dem Franchize Boyz border on unlistenable.
Andre, one of the wittiest MCs ever, decided to give us his best Prince rendition on The Love Below, which spilled over on Idlewild. But – for whatever reason – he’s put away the imitations of The Purple One and he’s back to spitting bars, notably on remixes from DJ UNK (“Walk It Out”) and Rich Boy (“Throw Some D’s”), as well as tracks from Devin the Dude (“What a Job”) and UGK (“International Players Anthem”). Each track is vintage Andre speaking to ears yearning for his sharp, unassuming flow: “Your white-tee? Well to me looks like a nightgown / Make ya’ mama proud, take that thing two sizes down” on “Walk it Out Remix.”
Or when he makes you feel ashamed for downloading “What a Job” instead of copping it at Best Buy: “You download it for free, we get charged back for it / I know you’re saying, they won’t know, they won’t miss it / Besides, I ain’t a thief, they won’t pay me a visit. So if I come to your job, take your corn on the cob / And take a couple kernels off I, that would be alright with you? / Hell no! Yeah, exactamundo.”
What might be his best verse lately comes from “Art of Storytelling 4,” which only exists as rumor at this point (federal agents seized DJ Drama’s studio because of his mixtape sales, putting the track on hiatus). At any rate, Pacman Jones should take note: “You know, make it rain? / When you can make it thunderstorm? / I’m like, ‘Why?’ The world needs sun, the ‘hood needs funds / There’s a war going on and half the battle is guns. How dare / I throw it on the floor when people are poor?”
Maybe he’s just whetting the marketplace’s appetite before the next album, maybe he’s regained his love for the mic. Whatever it is, “Skew it on the Bar-B” Andre is back.
Now, Idlewildwasn’t horrible. But it was only OK, and OutKast doesn’t make mediocre albums. Ever. Not since I walked to school in sixth grade, blasting “Git Up, Get Out” as loud as my knock-off walkman would allow. If the aforementioned Young Joc released Idlewild, we’d crown him with the best debut since Illmatic or College Dropout. But OutKast sets the bar each time out and last year’s soundtrack wasn’t groundbreaking or trend setting. It’s only merely listenable. Mickey Mantle didn’t hit .250. Michael Jordan didn’t miss the jumper against Cleveland in 1989. OutKast doesn’t make “merely listenable” albums.
With stellar release after stellar release, OutKast has placed themselves on a pedestal of hip-hop greats, with Andre the Mick to Big Boi’s Keef. But yes, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards have turned out several lackluster albums, even though every rock critic is too scared to pan any decent album they release. (See Rolling Stone’s reviews of the Rolling Stones’ The Bigger Bang and Bob Dylan’s Modern Times.) Listen, I enjoyed Modern Times, but it’s not a five-star record. And to be honest, neither was Love and Theft. And Dylan is in my top three of all time. Is anyone still listening to The Bigger Bang? No.
Yet if we score Idlewild by the same twisted logic of rating a transcendent, innovative group or artist’s currently “eh” work with the same score as their originally ground-breaking material, the album rates perfect.
But we don’t need no twisted logic when Andre’s rapping his verses of late. He’s back - quick, someone go get him the boa and shoulder pads.
♫ ♫ ♫ ♫
Elliot writes professionally for a daily newspaper and often drafted his own OutKast’s Greatest Hits collections when bored several years ago during auditorium classes, freshman year in college. His versions were almost certainly always better than the actual version that was eventually released, because the retail CD didn’t include “13th floor/Growing Old.” Elliot’s best and worst dreams are that someday Bob Dylan will read his work, but it will only be the one column where he trashed “Modern Times” and “Love and Theft.” He can be reached here.
Leave a Reply