#359 Stankonia - Outkast

I feel very under-qualified to write anything about a rap album so in order to ease into my thoughts on Stankonia, I want to begin this post with a random fact:  Andre 3000 is a VEGETARIAN.  Yeah, you read that right.  (Represent, mother f*****!!) Check the PETA website if you don't believe me.

The album was also apologizing to women openly and also underhandedly.  I got the vibe that Andre 3000 and Big Boi were trying to right all of the rap albums that talk about beating bitches and hoes, "slip my hoe a 44 when she got in the back door" (snoop) etc.  The album dripped with misogynistic guilt.  But, he's a vegetarian, so he understands empathy, right?

I enjoyed that he had a song about apologizing to the mothers of girlfriends who have been wronged, hurt, or knocked up.  I also really enjoyed the Kim and Cookie interlude where they talk about how awful it can be to get stuck with a "minute man" and how one must hit him up for money in the morning so she can feel like she got something out of it instead of a memory of a 23 second countdown.  And that interlude leads into my favorite song "I'll Call before I come" which explains to men that they should respect a woman enough to call her before coming over instead of just showing up and expecting some play.  It's also a play on words, and between the chorus, the rappers explain that it is important for the woman to come first.

so if being a vegetarian wasn't hot enough, this mating call of a song seals the deal.

The album was catchy and political too.  Everyone in America needs to listen to "Gasoline Dreams."

Rolling Stone's Blurb:

"We call it slumadelic," said Big Boi of OutKast's far-reaching blend of hip-hop, funk, rock and otherworldly sounds. "Miss Jackson" was something new for rap: an apology to the mother of an ex-girlfriend. And the sadly still timely "B.O.B. (Bombs Over Baghdad)" twitches to techno beats and screeching guitar.