Stankonia

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Stankonia
Studio album by OutKast
Released October 31, 2000
Recorded 1999–2000
Stankonia Recording
(Atlanta, Georgia)
Genre Hip hop, neo soul
Length 73:17
Label LaFace/Arista
Producer Earthtone III (OutKast) Organized Noize
OutKast chronology
Aquemini
(1998)		 Stankonia
(2000)		 Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
(2003)
Alternative cover
Limited Edition cover
Singles from Stankonia
  1. "B.O.B"
    Released: September 19, 2000
  2. "Ms. Jackson"
    Released: January 2, 2001
  3. "So Fresh, So Clean"
    Released: March 13, 2001

Stankonia is the fourth studio album by American hip hop duo OutKast, released October 31, 2000 on La Face Records. The album debuted at number 2 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart, selling over 530,000 copies the first week. Stankonia received general acclaim from music critics, based on an aggregate score of 95/100 from Metacritic.[1] It received rave reviews from publications such as USA Today and the Los Angeles Times.[2][3] It was also voted as the best album of the year in The Village Voice Pazz & Jop critics' poll. In 2003, the album was ranked number 359 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Contents

[edit] Background

In March 1998, André 3000 and Big Boi purchased a studio off Northside Drive in Atlanta which had formerly belonged to R&B singer Bobby Brown.[4] The two called the studio "Stankonia", a word created by André 3000 as a combination of the words "stank", a slang synonym for "funky", and "Plutonia", the title of a poster in his bedroom depicting a futuristic city.[4] He explained, "Stankonia is this place I imagined where you can open yourself up and be free to express anything".[5]

The recording of Stankonia began in spring of 1999 and lasted for about a year. Big Boi spent the majority of this time in the studio, while André 3000 worked at home, creating beats and experimenting with an acoustic guitar.[4] One song that came from a jam session on the guitar was "Ms. Jackson", the album's second single. Recording sessions became difficult as André became tired of rapping on songs, which made Big Boi and the producers uneasy about how the music would sound.[4] André decided to combine rapping with soul-inspired crooning, which had a major influence on Stankonia's sound.[4]

[edit] Composition

[edit] Music

Part of the reason for Stankonia's acclaim and popularity is the diversity of its musical influences, which has led to comparisons with Prince. It incorporates many musical genres to create a unique-sounding whole. For instance, the album opens with Indian tablas and harmonium, then launching into a heavy metal-style electric guitar riff on "Gasoline Dreams" before turning to slick P-funk on the second song (fourth track overall) "So Fresh, So Clean". The album also incorporates influences from gospel ("Toilet Tisha"), samba ("Humble Mumble") and drum and bass ("B.O.B."). This stylistic diversity was tied together by the pseudo-psychedelic production, emphasizing trippy synthesizers, spacey sound effects, techno-tinged percussion, and weird 70s-style psychedelic funk, updated in a more contemporary hip-hop context. The album's cover is an homage to Sly & the Family Stone's There's a Riot Goin' On.[citation needed]

[edit] Lyrics

Stank, a commonly used word on the album, is derived from a southern U.S. pronunciation of stink, the original meaning of the word funk. George Clinton applied the term stank to the more carnal, hedonistic things in life, including funk music. "Stankonia" is the name of a fictional land at "the center of the earth, seven light years below sea level", which is "the place from which all 'funky thangs' come", according to the album's opening lyrics. The lyrical content is divided between verses from Big Boi and André 3000. The artists describe themselves as "a player and a poet", respectively, and this is reflected in the lyrics; Big Boi tends to deal with standard gangsta fare (such as guns, hoes, and pimping on songs such as "Snappin & Trappin" and "We Luv Deez Hoez") while André 3000 talks about other elements of "stanking", using metaphors about elephants, ski slopes, and the four humours.

Paul Lester of The Guardian described Outkast's lyrical style on the album by saying "They are, in a way, post-hip-hop, combining PM Dawn's kooky confections with the Pharcyde's hallucinatory whimsy, Public Enemy's hardline politicking with De La Soul's cartoon dementia, to fashion something vital and new."[6] The song "Red Velvet" discusses the materialistic nature of the hip-hop scene.[6] In "Toilet Tisha", the duo empathizes with suicidal pregnant teenagers.[6]

[edit] Artwork

The artwork on the disc (which appears as the limited edition cover in altered form) features a computer-generated image of a subset of the Mandelbrot set, a fractal.

[edit] Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic 5/5 stars[7]
Robert Christgau A[8]
Entertainment Weekly A[9]
The New York Times favorable[10]
NME 9/10[11]
PopMatters favorable[12]
Rolling Stone 4/5 stars[13]
Sputnikmusic 4.5/5[14]
USA Today 4/4 stars[2]
The Village Voice favorable[15]

Robert Christgau of The Village Voice gave it an A rating and described Stankonia as "comic and expansive P-Funk".[8] Allmusic gave the album 5 out of 5 stars and wrote "given the variety of moods, it helps that the album is broken up by brief, usually humorous interludes, which serve as a sort of reset button. It takes a few listens to pull everything together, but given the immense scope, it's striking how few weak tracks there are".[7] Entertainment Weekly's Ken Tucker wrote that "Stankonia reeks of artful ambition rendered with impeccable skill" and gave the album an A rating.[9] Stankonia is the eleventh-highest ranked album of the century on Metacritic with a score of 95, indicating "universal acclaim".[1]

[edit] Accolades

In 2006, Time magazine named Stankonia as one of the 100 best albums of all time.[16] Rolling Stone ranked the album number 16 on the magazines list of the 100 Best Albums of the 2000s.[17] In 2009, Pitchfork Media ranked Stankonia number 13 on its list of the top 200 albums of the 2000s, and Rhapsody ranked it at number 12 on its "100 Best Albums of the Decade" list.[18][19] Rhapsody also ranked the album number 6 on its "Hip-Hop’s Best Albums of the Decade" list.[20] Entertainment Weekly put it on its end-of-the-decade "best-of" list, saying, "With hummable hits ('Ms. Jackson') and out-there experiments ('B.O.B.'), the rap duo gave us all a visa to the funky if fictional land of Stankonia in 2000."[21]

[edit] Track listing

No. Title Producer(s) Length
1. "Intro"   Earthtone III 1:09
2. "Gasoline Dreams" (featuring Khujo Goodie) Earthtone III 3:34
3. "I'm Cool" (Interlude) Earthtone III 0:42
4. "So Fresh, So Clean"   Organized Noize 4:00
5. "Ms. Jackson"   Earthtone III 4:30
6. "Snappin' & Trappin'" (featuring Killer Mike & J-Sweet) Earthtone III 4:19
7. "D.F." (Interlude) Earthtone III 0:27
8. "Spaghetti Junction"   Organized Noize 3:57
9. "Kim & Cookie" (Interlude) Earthtone III 1:12
10. "I'll Call Before I Come" (featuring Gangsta Boo & Eco) Earthtone III 4:18
11. "B.O.B"   Earthtone III 5:04
12. "Xplosion" (featuring B-Real) Earthtone III 4:08
13. "Good Hair" (Interlude) Earthtone III 0:14
14. "We Luv Deez Hoez" (featuring Backbone & Big Gipp) Organized Noize 4:10
15. "Humble Mumble" (featuring Erykah Badu) Earthtone III 4:50
16. "Drinkin' Again" (Interlude) Earthtone III 0:24
17. "?"   Earthtone III 1:29
18. "Red Velvet"   Earthtone III 3:52
19. "Cruisin' in the ATL" (Interlude) Earthtone III 0:19
20. "Gangsta Shit" (featuring Slimm Calhoun, C-Bone & T-Mo) Earthtone III 4:41
21. "Toilet Tisha"   Earthtone III 4:24
22. "Slum Beautiful" (featuring Cee-Lo) Earthtone III 4:07
23. "Pre-Nump" (Interlude) Earthtone III 0:27
24. "Stankonia (Stanklove)" (featuring Big Rube & Sleepy Brown) Earthtone III 6:50
Notes
  • Earthtone III is a production team consisting of OutKast and David "Mr. DJ" Sheats.
  • "So Fresh, So Clean" contains a sample of "Before the Night is Over" by Joe Simon.
  • "Ms. Jackson" contains a sample of "Strawberry Letter #23" by The Brothers Johnson.
  • "We Luv Deez Hoez" contains a samples of "Worldwide" by Allen Toussaint.

[edit] Chart performance

Chart (2000) Peak
position
U.S. Billboard 200 2
U.S. Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums 2
Top Canadian Albums 4

[edit] Personnel

OutKast:

Guest performers

Instrumentalists:

  • Donnie Mathis - guitar
  • David "Whild" Brown - guitar
  • Jason Freeman - horns
  • Jerry Freeman - horns
  • Sleepy Brown - piano, synthesised bass
  • Marvin "Chanz" Parkman - piano, keyboards
  • Earthtone III & Organized Noize - keyboards
  • Preston Crump - bass guitar, synthesized bass
  • Aaron Mills - bass guitar
  • Robert Grister - bass guitar
  • Dookie Blossumgame - bass guitar
  • Victor Alexander - drums

Other people:

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Stankonia (2000): Reviews. Metacritic. Retrieved on 2009-07-09.
  2. ^ a b Jones, Steve. Review: Stankonia. USA Today. Retrieved on 2009-10-10.
  3. ^ Staff. Review: Stankonia. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved on 2009-10-10.
  4. ^ a b c d e "Steps to success OutKast's hard work and careful cultivation of an audience have led to unprecedented Grammy nominations". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Cox Enterprises). February 26, 2002. 
  5. ^ Murray, Sonia (October 30, 2000). "The poet and the playa: OutKast makes sweet music". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Cox Enterprises). 
  6. ^ a b c Lester, Paul (May 18, 2001). "PARTNERS IN RHYME: One of them is a blonde-wigged, teetotal vegetarian who reads Pushkin. The other breeds pitbulls in his spare time. Together they have been called the 'greatest living hip-hop act'. Paul Lester hits the road with OutKast". The Guardian. Guardian Media Group. 
  7. ^ a b Huey, Steve. Review: Stankonia. Allmusic. Retrieved on 2010-03-31.
  8. ^ a b Christgau, Robert. "Consumer Guide: Stankonia". The Village Voice: November 28, 2000. Retrieved on 2009-10-10.
  9. ^ a b Tucker, Ken. Review: Stankonia. Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved on 2009-10-10.
  10. ^ Pareles, Jon. Review: Stankonia. The New York Times. Retrieved on 2009-10-10.
  11. ^ Bardowell, Derek A. "Review: Stankonia". NME: 41. November 18, 2000.
  12. ^ Hight, Aishah. Review: Stankonia. PopMatters. Retrieved on 2009-10-10.
  13. ^ Brackett, Nathan. Review: Stankonia. Rolling Stone. Retrieved on 2009-10-10.
  14. ^ Arp, Louis. Review: Stankonia. Sputnikmusic. Retrieved on 2009-10-10.
  15. ^ Green, Tony. Review: Stankonia. The Village Voice. Retrieved on 2009-10-10.
  16. ^ The All-TIME 100 Albums
  17. ^ "100 Best Albums of the 2000s: Outkast, 'Stankonia'". Rolling Stone. Jann Wenner. http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/100-best-albums-of-the-2000s-20110718/outkast-stankonia-19691231. Retrieved February 18, 2012. 
  18. ^ The Top 200 Albums of the 2000s: 13) Stankonia. Pitchfork Media. Retrieved on 2009-10-10.
  19. ^ "Rhapsody's 100 Best Albums of the Decade" Retrieved 12 January 2010.
  20. ^ "Hip-Hop’s Best Albums of the Decade" Retrieved 12 January 2010.
  21. ^ Geier, Thom; Jensen, Jeff; Jordan, Tina; Lyons, Margaret; Markovitz, Adam; Nashawaty, Chris; Pastorek, Whitney; Rice, Lynette; Rottenberg, Josh; Schwartz, Missy; Slezak, Michael; Snierson, Dan; Stack, Tim; Stroup, Kate; Tucker, Ken; Vary, Adam B.; Vozick-Levinson, Simon; Ward, Kate (December 11, 2009), "THE 100 Greatest MOVIES, TV SHOWS, ALBUMS, BOOKS, CHARACTERS, SCENES, EPISODES, SONGS, DRESSES, MUSIC VIDEOS, AND TRENDS THAT ENTERTAINED US OVER THE PAST 10 YEARS". Entertainment Weekly. (1079/1080):74-84

[edit] External links

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