Hey, Y’all. We back in, but I got a short one for ya’ today.
No one told me just how amazing OutKast’s Speakerboxxx/The Love Below is. Like sonically.
The sonic ideas they mesh together in those songs that would invoke cacophony in anyone else’s hands.
In Roses, the breakbeat, but with rnb drum hits instead of jazz or boom-bap. Then the soulful 50s-60s organ playing concurrently with this 80s-90s buzzing bass synth, the plucky electro-piano keys that chimes in at the top of every measure. Then you got this low-roaring guitar that intensifies the latter half and the end of the choruses.
Then if all that isn’t enough, there’s that catchy, darting synth line that dances around and up and down the scale during the choruses that flies over everything and ties it all together!
And it’s all got a swing to it!
Then how Big Boi just creates one idea in one bar, then eloquently completes that idea in common language in the next, yet he still fits it into the rhyme scheme, and sometimes simultaneously sets up the next motif or scheme in completing that thought, in common language.
And how some parts are intentionally out of time by a few fractions of a count! I can tell ya from experience, that takes skill!
Even in 2003, They were knocking on a very particular door:
Genre-bending.
Wake up and smell the roses here.
~
Thank you so much for reading!
Disclaimer: any comments written from a place of offense, prejudice or projecting one’s own fear maliciously will not be tolerated on this site. If you feel that your thoughts are of this nature, refrain from commenting until you feel more positive, or please don’t comment at all. Any comments of this nature are frequently monitored and will be promptly deleted from this site to ensure that this blog remains a safe space for positive, constructive, and forward-thinking ideas that will help to genuinely make the world a better place.
If you feel you got anything out of this, or that someone you know could benefit from hearing what’s been said here, please consider sharing with others, or even just saying “hi!” Those sorts of comments will brighten up ya boi’s day real quick. 😊😊❤️❤️❤️ I’m working on installing sharing buttons, but for now, a copying of the link can suffice, I imagine. This blog is on the come-up, and anyone who visits or whom you help bring to this site will be contributing to help build it into something even more amazing than what we have in these humble beginnings!
I’m working on a mailing list and a subscriber system so y’all can know when I post, and get any other cool things or thoughts from me, so stay tuned for that, I’ll be updating these posts as these new things are created!
Finally, thank you for your time, I hope you got something great out of this, and I am so glad that you exist!
Stay strong, stay loving. ❤️
Evan
Tell someone you love them after you read this. 😊❤️