This album isn't average by hardly any criteria (especially hiphop). It is just too interesting to be average IMO.

There aren't 15 Speakerboxxx's from this year. And Freeway didn't just do a Love Below-type album.

ie: Joe Budden's album is around average. Quite a few cool tracks. A few standouts. Some 'clever' mixtape lines with a few standout lines. Average.

SB/TLB slaps that album around in ugly fashion.

"Muthafuck the wagon. Come join the band."

Me? Bandwagon?

I have been a fan of Outkast since ATLiens. (well before I became an internet poster and before I became 'the master of funk'.)

My roomdog from college showed up with the CD, and it(and both emcees) grew on me something fierce.

I knew of Southerplayalistic, but it wasn't a staple in my playlist. And one of my boys used to wear out Funky Ride to the point that I didn't wanna hear it again.

Anyway...

This release is THAT good to me (RS needs to give it a 4.0). These albums aren't perfect, but they shame the 'average' emcee and the 'average' hiphop release with general ease.

The work is not the drastic departure that folks say it is.

It is (in ways) drastically different from hiphop's norm, but it is another step in the path that Outkast has been taking from the jump. And I enjoy the hell out of it.

Big Boi's album is subtly topical and mostly funky throughout. Dre has been the more 'interesting' of the two, but Big Boi was dope at first, and he's easily a much better emcee right now.

The Love Below is my jam. Dre and his P-Funk/Bootsy/Sly singing/talking/etc can wear on you, and there are a few times where his voice isn't what it needs to be, but the ideas and the music is there. He just proved that making an album with one main theme (and some connection between some songs) is not the impossible mission that cats make it out to be. He pulled off the hiphop influenced album that Prince never really did with much less vocal talent IMO.

Jimaveli

>That's exactly how I feel. I simply don't understand why
>everyone likes Outkast. I'm starting to think that it's kind
>of the in thing to do, to act like you just love this album.
>People jumping all over the bandwagon... I mean, come on.
>Even if you do like it, you can't like an album THIS much...
>And it's hard to believe THIS many people like it THAT much,
>all while I can't stand either Big Boi's disc, nor Andre's,
>nor any of their other albums. Not that it's impossible for
>me to dislike something while somebody else loves it, but
>not to this degree... We're all hip hop heads, we all know
>what good hip hop is, so lets cut the bullshit, make some
>compromises, and say that this album is an average album.