Leaving us maybe just a LITTLE too early is a song you guys should be so thankful for because this rate as originally named simply would not exist without it! It is an early-era hymnal that urges us all just to sit back and smoke one out rather than go around killing each other, which let's be honest is a lesson that many of us could still learn a thing or too about. The verses (structured Andre - Big - Big - Andre which is something I'm not sure happens in too many other places) are tied together with one of their smoothest and catchiest sung choruses, brought to us by the legend Sleepy Brown.
Choice lyrical nugget: "Yessuh, let me dig into your brain, folks falling like rain / Poverty got me selling thangs, guess I'm gon' explain / Jane is rolled up, no gangs be throwed up / But still Andre got action, they Sweat like Keith, all on my teeth / I take it upon myself to handle mine, thinking that you / Gots ample time to do this have you shot I thought you knew this / I'm crumbling, no time for fumbling selling my sacks watching my back / Wetting 'em up like splish, leaving 'em in a splash"
Overall score: 8.212
# 10s: 2 {i spit on haters, chilluminati}
Lowest score: 5 {Kool_Aid_King, jqnetto}
Your host's score: 9
track #7 off of Aquemini
Thisss... it might be the catchiest OutKast song. For all of the different antics they like to rap about, we don't get a whole lot of narration in their work regarding the art of dope dealing, so it's refreshing here to get an isolated analysis of that job as a change of pace and then not have that subject matter clogging up most of the remaining songs in their discography. The crying infant noises ("baby gotta eeaaat") make up a clever backbone to the track, nicely complimenting some of the low points of the dealing lifestyle observed by Big Boi in his verse. This song so bangin, we don't even need an Andre.
One of a ****ton of songs for which nobody sent in any comments, but I remember madonnas telling me on my wall a while back how he thought this is one of their most underappreciated, and of course it is true.
Choice lyrical nugget: "Anything goin you ain't knowin how much money YOU spent / But in the real world you surrounded by these ladies and gents / Who hang around you cause you be buyin all the weed and all the chicken / Feedin everybody, smokin em out / When you was broke though they was missin / Now you ridin bout fo' deep, startin to tear up your suspension / And your baby mamma on child support, my fault, forget to mention"
The sulfuric bubbles are a unique atmospheric touch at the start of this one, but they also fit perfectly on a different level what with this track sounding like the concoction of a mad scientist from inside his laboratory. OutKast basically put southern hip hop on the map, but there is nothing remotely southern, or really characteristic of any U.S. geographical division from a rap standpoint, about "Xplosion"! There is hardly a pattern to any of the 3 verses here; I would almost believe if told they were freestyling, until I realized that none could be quite this inventive on the spot. And I think up to now this is word-for-word what I had down before the incident, but I can't ****ing remember what was my previous final sentence.
Choice lyrical nugget: "ISound travels at one thousand, one thirty, feet per second / ****** in the street they want it, hurry / When ****** start biting that's when 3000 starts to worry / A little knowledge from the college of wizard Ray Murray / Answer quick do you know what desire is? "Huh?" / Apparently not that's why you get what you got / Now answer this do you know what fire is? "Yeah" / The body of hot, the motivator of pots"
Overall score: 8.282
# 10s: 2 {Kool_Aid_King, MP2K}
Lowest score: 7 {jqnetto, Jameson Teqkilla, i spit on haters, chilluminati}
Your host's score: 8.3
track #12 off of Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik
Cute little motivational anthem masquerading as a 7 and a half-minute epic. You should always push yourself to do better, but as we're told here, the path towards a prosperous life by way of education is not always so easy. Cee Lo Green, who we now know as The Voice judge who got impeached but was a founding member of the Goodie Mob, offers up another memorable hook but THEN moves in with the one-two to remind us just how good of a rapper he used to be when he steps up to. Kool_Aid_King agrees this feature worked perfectly, and vouches for this song's effectiveness as a self-help device. Like the recurring guitar lick too.
This was another single, third off the first album and their first flop actually, but 12 years later it was utilized in the film ATL starring Big Boi and T.I., so, its revenge.
Choice lyrical nugget: "I used to hang out with my daddy's brothers, I call them my uncles / They taught me how to smoke herb, I followed them when they ran numbers / So in a sense I was Rosemary's baby / And then, I learned the difference between a bitch and a lady"
Overall score: 8.318
# 10s: 6 {Superiore, MP2K, i spit on haters, Whatevaaaaa, chilluminati, Kang.}
Lowest score: 4 {jqnetto, Kingfisher}
Your host's score: ^^
track #8 off of ATLiens
This gotta be one of their slower songs, but IMO it all comes together owing to that gripping chorus. The idea of America as a modern version of the corrupted city of Babylon from the Bible is a really interesting one, and it shows how conceptually they were just on their own plane within the sphere of 90s hip hop, even if it was Andre doing most of the heavy thematic lifting on these early albums.
Looking back on these results and damn y'all let Jazzy Belle go real early lol, but it's alright cuz musically this is kind of like an improved version anyway.
Choice lyrical nugget: "I came into this world high as a bird / From second hand cocaine powder / I know it sounds absurd / I never tooted but it's in my veins / While the rest of the country bungees off bridges / Without no snap back"
If that's the Atlanta one that I think it is, I've definitely driven on it.
#23 - "Spaghetti Junction"
Overall score: 8.547
# 10s: 5 {Mrs. Aaron Paul, Kool_Aid_King, i spit on haters, chilluminati, Kang.}
Lowest score: 6.5 {Superiore}
Your host's score: ^^
track #8 off of Stankonia
I'm salty! Maybe their absolute best (short-form) embrace of jazz-rap, but for sure their most fun. The switch-off from those short ass traded verses before the first chorus to slightly longer ones in the middle, BACK to the 4-bars after the second ("Welllll, we....") is actually like thrilling if you're reading along with a lyrics page or some ****. So good. I love the diversity of Stankonia more than anything.
Choice lyrical nugget: "Yes, they can bite, but cannot be us / They can come and pick up little slang but cannot see us / You ought to be ashamed, trying to fit in 'My Adidas'/ So Run like D.M.C. is me and no, don't got no heater"