It used to be easier to pretend that an album was its own perfectly self-contained artifact. The great records certainly feel that way. But albums are more permeable than solid, their motivations, executions and inspirations informed by, and often stolen from, their peers and forbearers. It all sounds awfully formal, but it's not. It's the very nature of music — of art, even. The Six Degrees features examine the relationships between classic records and five… more »
It started with a note of relief.
Our computers had survived; we had made it. The clocks had passed midnight into the year 2000, not 1900, and all those tanks of propane and fresh water cached in the garage became souvenirs of an instantly-embarrassing paranoia.
Perhaps the year 2000 was the last time many would regard a computer with suspicion. Fears of the machine-chaos that would ensue as computer clocks the world over tried in vain to… more »
On September 7th, a federal appeals court in Cincinnati, Ohio, all but closed the book on sampling in hip-hop. A three-judge panel ruled that recent federal laws pertaining to the piracy of digital recordings also apply to the recycling of old songs by producers. Deviating from previous agreements that set up limits and tests for "legal" usages, the new decision aims to tighten the clamps on all lengths and types of samples, from entire riffs… more »
The player and the poet; the funk-faithful homeboy who raises pit bulls and the slightly spacey guitar-wielding dandy who takes movie parts; the championship singles act whose albums work best as whole units: What about OutKast isn't a dichotomy? Only their incredibly long shadow: for their first decade as a recording act, Big Boi (player, pit bull-raiser) and Andre 3000 (a.k.a. Dre and 3 Stacks; poet, dandy) pushed every rule about what hip-hop could and… more »
It used to be easier to pretend that an album was its own perfectly self-contained artifact. The great records certainly feel that way. But albums are more permeable than solid, their motivations, executions and inspirations informed by, and often stolen from, their peers and forbearers. It all sounds awfully formal, but it's not. It's the very nature of music — of art, even. The Six Degrees features examine the relationships between classic records and five… more »
OutKast’s first hits compilation comes at the perfect time; after gaining millions of new fans (more of a whole different demographic) with the crossover hit Stankonia, Dré and Big Boi delivered a tight summation of their decade-long career for listeners whose familiarity grows hazy before the duo hit with “Ms. Jackson” and “B.O.B.” OutKast has been doing great work since their fully formed debut with 1993′s “Player’s Ball,” and their singles hold up well. Those looking for positivity and emotion on the level of “Ms. Jackson” will find it (wrapped in great productions) on “Rosa Parks” and “Git up, Git Out.” The down-tempo “Elevators (Me & You)” is an OutKast history-in-miniature, while two excellent tracks from their debut — “Ain’t No Thang” and “Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik” — introduced the group’s formula of syrupy G-funk and intricate, slang-heavy rapping. Also included are three new tracks: the brass-heavy “Funkin’ Around,” a P-Funk pastiche named “The Whole World,” and the jazz-club jam “Movin’ Cool (The After Party).” – John Bush
