Stankonia [PA] by OutKast

Pros: Witty. Wise. FUNK-AY!
Cons: Overboard on the skits.

The road to Stankonia is paved with generations upon generations of black music, and the bricks laid by Prince and Public Enemy.

I envision Stankonia as the elusive, trippy utopia hatched within the minds of Outkast's Andre 3000 and Big Boi....

Pros: Musical variety. Outkast are two classy lyricists. Originality. Subject matter. Some classic tracks.
Cons: Filler. Skits. Production occasionally becomes difficult listening.

Not much good hip-hop comes out of the South coast of the U.S.A if you ask me. Aside from Scarface, Goodie Mob and occasionally Eightball for me there’s little interest in the Southern coast. When you see inferior...

Pros: The innovation, the diversity, the emotion.
Cons: The skits, a few filler tracks (only a few though).

Outkast are the Beatles of hip-hop.Yeah I said it before. But I meant it then and I mean it now. Like the Fab Four, Andre Benjamin and Antwan Patton are not content to simply keep producing straightforward stuff for the masses for their whole ...

Pros: One of the least conventional - and most exciting - albums Outkast has ever done.
Cons: Length, manic energy gets tiring.

This spring is turning out to be a busy one for mainstream hip-hop releases – Relapse, Crime Pays, Back on My B.S., Blackout 2. So, what have I decided to do? Review an album that’s nine years old, of course! ...

Pros: All-over-the-placeness done right.
Cons: A pair of slightly ill-conceived psychadelic experiments at the end.

Quick, I gotta post a review noddin' in agreement with everyone else before I get picked apart over that Common review! Well, not exactly. I mean, I like Stankonia, but with a twist -- I probably like it more than you do. Yeah, you, that ...

Pros: Lyrics, Beats, Subject Matter, Variety, Great Music, Social Consciousness, Creativity
Cons: Way Too Many Interludes, Some Weaker Tracks

Lets face it.... Dirty South is nothing but crap. We continuously get wrist watches, crist poppin, money grubbing music with little or no musical value and little or no lyricism at all. Dont even mention creativity and subject matter, cause there isnt a ...

Pros: Great lyrics, creative concepts, good music.
Cons: Overzealous production, too many skits.

In the past few years, hip-hop has become so commercial that rap artists don’t really have the freedom to explore music and lyrics as much as artists in other genres. When artists do actually get the opportunity to “push the envelope” artistically, I...

Pros: They are truly the best artists of 2000
Cons: Some songs are so serious, I don't want to hear them

This is the album that is taking off where DMX and Nelly left off. Hip-hop has really hit the mainstream, and this album is helping to make it stick. It first gained recognition with their first single from this album -- B.O.B. It's ok if you never heard...

Pros: Creativity, beats, NO Bling Bling
Cons: Gangsta Boo....ouch

With the majority of rap albums coming out these days, one really begins to wonder if the genre is on its way out. It is nearly impossible nowadays to find one rap SONG, let alone an entire album, that is about little more than a given rapper's ego and...

Pros: good beats, outkast have their own interesting funk/hip hop style
Cons: too much filler, only 12 good songs

For the most part, I hate mainstream hip hop. Mainstream hip hop has become one bling bling fest where a good danceable beat is all you need for a hit single. Emcees no longer have to come up with clever, deep, or thought provoking rhymes. They just have...

Pros: Great beats, variation of music style, variety of various instruments, intricate lyrics.
Cons: none

When I was cruising around town for fun, a very familiar song suddenly played on the radio station. Yeah, of coarse I knew who it was, Outkast, with their extremely fortuitous and dominant single Ms. Jackson. It took me by...

Pros: Innovative production and great lyrics, as usual
Cons: Too much filler, and a couple of throwaways

In these days of bling-bling, carbon-copy rap, Outkast is one of the few artists who stand alone and come with something fresh and innovative with every outing. Their first album, Southernplayalisticadillacmusic (I'm trying to spell that off the top of...

Pros: Racy Vocals, Quality Production, Andre and Big Boi
Cons: A little different(maybe ahead of its time)

I started listening to hip hop when I was twelve. I heard some crazy stuff they called Gangsta Rap by these guys who called themselves N.W.A. They're lyrics were naughty and explicit, just like it said on the cover. But I realized then, I was in...

Pros: Best album yet, almost all the songs, different, funky, expressive
Cons: Too many slow songs, too many skits

The Dirty South scene has really taken off. The recent success of the likes of Nelly and Trick Daddy can only mean that hip hop has a new frontier. Leading the charge is one of the most powerful groups in hip hop: Andre 3000 and Big Boi a.k.a OutKast....

Pros: Impeccible musical vision and delivery
Cons: None that I can tell

What can I say? Outkast is one of the few widely-known hip hop acts out there today that continues to push the envelope with another slammin' release.

As an implant to Georgia from the North, I grew up on the standards of East Coast fare,...