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OutKast: Speakboxxx/The Love Below (Arista)

Barney Hoskyns, Uncut, 2004

THE YIN AND YANG of epicene dandy André 3000 and straight-up, pit-bull-ownin’ Big Boi may yet prove OutKast’s undoing. If so, the duo at least left us with this remarkable "two-sides-of" double. Big Boi’s Speakerboxxx was the more conventional half but still thrilled with the shuddering "Ghettomusick" and lilting "Way You Move". André’s Love Below was at once louche and radically vulnerable – the last thing one expected from a hip hop superstar in 2003.

Total word count of piece: 75

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