| With their fourth-album, Outkast invoke the rebel Southern spirit to full effect. Realising there is something rotten in the state of hip hop, the Atlantan local heroes have staked out their own territory, Stankonia, a Utopian republic representing the best of the Dirty South. As if in tribute to Funkadelic's America Eats Its Young , the album cover finds Dre and Big Boi staring out in front of a black and white stars and stripes. Inside they waste no time in revealing their radical agenda. "Don't everyone like the smell of gasoline?" hollers Andre 3000 on opener "Gasoline Dreams", as he sets fire to the constitution over a scorching electric guitar. The single "B.O.B." (aka "Bombs Over Baghdad") is Outkast's state-of-the-union address, a rousing gothic gospel number that advocates a "power music electric revival" as it approaches the speed of Reprazent's "Who Told You" and the epic feel of "Bohemian Rhapsody". On "Miss Jackson", they assume the role of exemplary southern Gentleman begging forgiveness from their hoochie's mama over a backing with spooky shades of Prince's "When Doves Cry". Elsewhere they eschew tradition (on tracks like "?", "Snappin & Trappin" and the B-Real-guesting "Xplosion") to invest their dirty funk with a distinctly avant-garde afro-sheen. Come election day, just sniff this stank to inhale freedom. --Chris Campion |
