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 OutKasts undoing. If so, the duo at least left us with this remarkable "two-sides-of" double. Big Bois Speakerboxxx was the more conventional half but still thrilled with the shuddering "Ghettomusick" and lilting "Way You Move". Andrés 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