OutKast: Stankonia
Simon Reynolds, Uncut, June 2001
IN A RECENT diatribe, American theorist Joe Carducci blamed digital studio techniques for extinguishing rock's vital spark. And he lambasted contemporary black music, "an 'R&B' that's increasingly sci-fi in its hysterical self-loathing flight from the American earth of roadhouse, kitchen, church, juke joint, whorehouse." Atlanta, Georgia duo OutKast — the most critically acclaimed hip hop group right now — invariably get praised in downhome Dixie imagery suspiciously similar to Carducci's dated, chitlin' circuit notions of authentic blackness: the wholesome soul-food lingo of bubbling gumbo, homemade peach cobbler, chicken grease, and, groan, "Southern-fried".
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