Jackson 08 - So Fresh, So CleanBefore the era of Southern rap dominance. 01 - Elevators (Me & You) 02 - ATLiens 03 - Aquemini 04 - Jazzy Belle 05 - Player's Ball 06 - SpottieOttieDopaliscious 07 - Mrs. The chilled-out space-funk of ATLiens had already thrown some fans. Even compared to their already excellent and forward-looking catalog, OutKast's sprawling third album, Aquemini, was a stroke of brilliance. Buy the album Starting at 9.99. Purchase and download this album in a wide variety of formats depending on your needs.As Wade recounts the bones of the album, we have to wonder if there was an alternate version of Aquemini that may have stood the test of time in much the same way the version rap knows and loves has. Before Atlanta became the hub of hip-hop, there were the Source Awards.With Aquemini, OutKast bridged the gap between arrival and the pursuit of artistic freedom. Before the Migos and Young Jeezy.The raucous night in New York is most known for the arrival of the “East Coast vs. 3, 1995, and gave hip-hop one of its most iconic nights. The second annual Source Awards took place on Aug. OutKast 'Rats and Roaches' Tired of reinventing music, Andre 3000 and Big Boi step back into their pre-Aquemini sound and find it as comfortable as an old.
![]() Outkast Aquemini Code Policy ByMuhammad Ali bombastically predicting the round in which he’d knock out his opponents. Serena Williams combating a racist dress code policy by crushing opponents while wearing a tutu. They function, as they did at the Source Awards, as an “I told you so,” mixed with “F you.”The move was an audio version of Stephen Curry turning around and celebrating before his 3-pointer goes in. The last thing listeners hear on the project is a clip from that Source Awards moment and Andre 3000’s unforgettable words. Outkast, Raekwon, George Clinton, Big Gipp, T-Mo, Khujo Release Date 1998-09-29 Label Arista/LaFace Records Catalog G010001699758U.Three years later, Outkast released its third studio album, Aquemini. Then Andre 3000 took the stage and defiantly yelled six words into the microphone that would change the course of American pop culture forever:Release.Maybe rap is too young and unpolished in too many people’s eyes to enter the discussions reserved for the classics from artists such as Stevie Wonder and Prince. It rests at the pinnacle of creativity, execution and emotion.Maybe it’s hard to compare music across genres. Aquemini, celebrating its 20th anniversary, is a blessing of an album that stands tall among the best bodies of work music has ever seen. There are the guitar riffs on the Southern rock “Chonkyfire” and the P-Funk homage “Synthesizer” (featuring George Clinton himself), about the future of plastic surgery. There’s the jaw-cracking intro “Return Of The ‘G’” in which the tandem rips critics of their unconventional sartorial and musical styles. It’s filled with elite-level lyricism. It’s about time we talk about hip-hop albums in the pantheon of overall musical excellence, and there’s no better place to start than an album wise beyond the ages of two MCs barely old enough to drink at the time the album was recorded.What Aquemini did for us in the South, for an entire American region, can’t be understated.Named after a merge of Big Boi’s Aquarius and Andre 3000’s Gemini signs, Aquemini is a gumbo of soul, funk and trap music before it was called trap music. Then there’s the actual rapping. “West Savannah” and “Slump” are grimy, horn- and bass-filled tracks reminiscent of Outkast’s 1994 debut, Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik. It’s an ode to the Atlanta that raised Outkast. The lead single, “Rosa Parks,” melds hip-hop with the black church aesthetic of tambourines and choirs. We reflect emotion, not ‘just what’s happening on your street.’ ”However, despite the universal appeal of the double-platinum Aquemini, the album manages to keep its toes tickling the rising tide of Georgia’s Chattahoochee River. “When we started making music, we wanted to get everybody on the planet to hear it. It’s substance that makes Aquemini sing. Big Boi’s flow is as smooth and natural as the ripple left behind.But it’s not just their flows. Andre 3000’s flow tumbles across the beats like a rock skipping over a pond. Their voices and cadences complement each other like fried catfish and day-old spaghetti. The policy ravaged black communities. In 1998, black Americans were knee-deep in a Clintonian three-strikes policy that was putting black men and women in prison for life for their third (even) nonviolent offenses. The subject haunts verses throughout the album, much like it has done to the American black population. So don’t get caught up in appearance — speaking to the criticism laid upon rappers by the respectability politics crowd who wanted them to pull their pants up and look presentable in order to achieve fame.One especially beautiful aspect of Aquemini is how Outkast truly shows love and care for black folks while urging us to do better, especially in the ’90s era of respectability politics. Then Andre 3000 raps, Is every n—a with dreads for the cause / Nah / Is every n—a with gold for the fall? / Nah. “Da Art Of Storytellin’ Part 1” goes from Big Boi’s playful banter about a harmless hookup to Andre 3000’s tragic tale of Sasha Thumper: I asked her what she wanna be / She said ‘alive.’ The title track features Big Boi’s warning about the spoils of rap fame: Let yo paper stack / Instead of going overkill / Pay your f—ing beeper bill. I can tell you that there will never be another song like it.The social commentary goes beyond mass incarceration, of course. Video editing software for mac easySo now you back in the trap / Just that / trapped, Big Boi says, popularizing a word and a mindset that would go on to define an entire subgenre of rap.I can tell you about the brilliance of the once-in-a-lifetime union of CeeLo Green, Erykah Badu and Outkast singing about their definitions of freedom. About how a party can turn into lives lost and love can turn into a lifetime of being stuck in a cycle of caring for a child and avoiding prison. There’s a smoky verse from Sleepy Brown (who has been singing hooks for Outkast since their very first single, “ Player’s Ball”), and Big Boi and Andre 3000 trade unrhymed spoken word about the tribulations of being black in America. It’s part jazz, part Motown, and with horns that have been replicated in historically black college band performances across the country. By the time the song was over, we knew Helena had found freedom. The quartet of geniuses encapsulated a life we didn’t want to say goodbye to — while helping us find a happiness we thought we wouldn’t find on that day. As we cried, we hummed along. “Liberation” played at my sister-in-law’s funeral while the slideshow of her life flashed on the big screen at the front of the church. I can tell you that there will never be another song like it. That night in New York shifted the culture. They made us feel pride in a place that wasn’t made for us to feel happy in. I didn’t find pride in the Dixie flag fluttering above my head every time I drove through downtown Jackson.But when Andre 3000 grabbed that mic at the Source Awards, he gave black kids a South to be proud of. But what about black Southerners? What do we have pride in? Growing up in Mississippi, I didn’t find any pride in my elementary school named after Jefferson Davis. “Southern pride” conjures images of Confederate flags and a longing for a time when the states below the Mason-Dixon could own black people. Music crafted with the same love and care that the Gullah use to weave a perfectly made handbasket. They reminded us of the life we could find pride in. What’s □ Right NowOutkast showed us our reflections as seen in the shiny spokes of Volkswagens and Bonnevilles, Chevrolets and Coupe de Villes bouncing off Old National Highway potholes. But what Andre 3000 proclaimed that night, and what Outkast together declared on Aquemini, was that surviving and thriving in the South was its own victory. We thought that being like a New Yorker was the pinnacle of black culture, and that if we could make it out of the South, then we’d make futures for ourselves.
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