"The South Got Somethin' to Say..."
-Andre 3000
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| Like, Imma need to buy another copy..I wanna leave untouched, pure, just like God made it. |
Damn...that should be in The Bible...on a T-shirt, a bumper sticker, shit, a tramp stamp. I’m sure when Andre Benjamin said those words to a disapproving New York crowd, they had no idea what was about to come. At that point The Whole World really did think it was all about pimpin’ hoes’ and slammin Cadillac doe’s. Little did the music world know that just three years later, those 2 Dope Boys (and their Cadillac) would change the way we listen to Hip-Hop forever...let alone music. The fact that their Magnus Opus was released on the same day Jay Z's “Hard Knock Life”, A Tribe Called Quest's “The Love Movement”,and “Mos Def and Talib Kweli are Blackstar” not only showed what confidence their label had in them, but added more meaning to those words spoken by the group three years earlier. “The South Got Somethin’ to Say”
To call their masterpiece, “Aquemini” one of the top 5 Hip-Hop albums ever would do it a grave injustice. This one of the best albums ever released period. By any group. Any genre (fight me).
This is the first record that I could honestly equate to Princes’ “Sign O The Times”, in terms of its depth, ambition, and
variety of styles . And like "SOTT", these songs all work separately, but together in one package? It's nothing short of magic.This is an album that two kids from GA couldn't write….but two men who have been “thu some thangs” can. This record is full of wisdom, growth, responsibility, success, failure…...maturity. If "Atliens" was the rims, "Aquemini" is the wood-grain steering wheel. This is an album by two men who've grown a lil' bit since their last album.
"Sin all depends on what you believin' in/Faith is what you make it/that's the hardest shit since MC Ren"
You know how something happens to you, and you think it’s the worst feeling in the world, and your Big Momma laughs at you and basically tells you that what you crying over aint nothing...just keep on living and you’ll have something to cry over for real? This record is the result of having something to cry over...for real. Big Boi and 3 Stacks show their growth on “The Art of Storytelling 1 & 2”, where they swap verses about handling stardom, and losing a friend to drugs...the yin yang of “making it”, but still staying close to real life. “SpottieOttieDopaliscious” again finds them in story telling mode..this time Big Boi telling an all true tale of having the perfect life in the palm of your hands, until… *sigh*, while Three Stacks waxing poetic over imaginary thoughts of a night at the club gone wrong.(And just in case you still don’t know, he says “Who else wanna **** with Hollywood Courts, not Hollywood Cole” I know most folk from the A know that already, but if you live anywhere else, what he says there is debatable).
“The South Got Somethin’ to Say”
Have you heard the way they KILT Raekwon on “Skew It On The Bar-B”?? Have you heard them snap on “Synthesizer”? Thats them rappin’ over some straight up Futuristic P-Funk...WITH George Clinton on the track. They’ve got somethin’ to say alright...they address alla yall who gave up on them after “Atliens” on “Return Of the G” as well as the opening skit. Is there any debate that this is their greatest creation? Atliens...who?
And yet, the debate lives on. “Atliens or Aquemini” a debate greater than “The Low End Theory or Midnight Marauders”. Back and forth, the arguments, the fights, the late night sessions at Spondivits or various Waffle Houses. Atliens is a stellar, stellar album. Damn near flawless. The quintessential Atlanta album. Almost perfect in every way. It really does go toe-to-toe with Aquemini every step.
"I stay down with these streets / Cause these streets is where my folks at / Better know that some say we pro-black boy we professional / We missed a lot of church so the music is our confessional"
I’ll take your “Art of Storytelling” and raise you a “Jazzy Belle”
Show me your “West Savannah” and I’ll show you my “Mainstream”
“Rosa Parks” ? Okay, what about “Atliens”
Told you, blow for blow...
Until Aquemini puts its finishing move...it’s Figure Four Leg Lock...it’s Slingshot Suplex...it’s Rock Bottom…
This….
There ain't nothing in their catalog that….nothing on most peoples catalogs that's messing with this. This song is perfectly imperfect. Listen to how off key they are when they all sing together. How some voices start later than others. Something like this can only be made by people who done been thru some thangs.
(Sidenote-me and my ex were living apart. Me in Charlotte, her in Marietta. I used to visit every weekend...putting way too many miles on my Grand Am. One weekend I came down and the vibe just wasn't right. I was getting ready to leave on Sunday and she told me that she was done with the relationship. I was cool about it until I got to the car. I didn't have a CD player in it, so I had recorded the CD to cassette...I listened to this song for three and a half hours straight. From Riverside Dr to Eastway Dr. I cried, laughed, pounded the steering wheel, cursed, got happy and over it all to this song, so maybe I’m a little biased)
THis song alone should set the record straight about which album is better between the two, and it’s just one reason why “Aquemini”, and OutKast have truly achieved GOAT status in my book.
“The South got Somethin’ To Say”, they said in 1995...thank God we were here to listen.
