Art by Mosesxan
Will Hagle was raised in the Dungeon.
I don’t know why I did this. There were plenty of better things to do on a Tuesday morning. I guess I was just thinking about Boomiverse, and how good it is. I was also thinking about Big Boi’s other two solo albums, and Speakerboxxx, which was better than The Love Below. I was thinking about how much great solo music Big Boi has made while Andre 3000 has done comparatively little on his own, even though Andre is considered one of the best rappers of all time. I was wondering if Outkast would have been as good if Outkast was not Outkast and was just Big Boi instead.
The answer, of course, is no. But if the answer was yes, then the click-bait headline would have written itself. “Big Boi Is A Better Rapper Than Andre 3000.” Oh, man. I would have gotten the clicks and the comments. I would have felt great about myself, and about Big Boi, but mostly about myself for being so controversial and clickable and commentable.
As I spent my Tuesday morning putting together this megamix of Big Boi verses, the narrative started to shift. I realized that Big Boi isn’t better or worse than Andre, and that the two of them working together is what made every Outkast album so great. I didn’t want to claim that Big Boi is better, but I did want to put all of his Outkast verses and hooks together to show the world that Big Boi is very very very very good on his own.
I felt a little weird and intrusive cutting Andre and all of the guest spots out of the discography. I felt like Stalin, erasing Trotsky and his followers from the history books as if they weren’t an integral part of the revolution that led him to power. Wow, that’s a smart analogy and I feel great about myself now. But I also feel great about Big Boi because Big Boi, even if you separate him completely from Andre 3000, is one of the greatest rappers of all time.
If you take out everyone else besides Big Boi, Outkast’s albums are pretty short. Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik is 14 minutes long. ATLiens is roughly 11 minutes. Aquemini is almost exactly 13 minutes. Stankonia is about 14 minutes, too. That’s where the mix stops, because Speakerboxxx/The Love Below is arguably where Outkast the duo ended and I didn’t want to waste any more time listening to Idlewild. This took a long ass time to put together so you better appreciate it.
Some of the cuts in this mix don’t make sense, especially the (relatively rare) songs like “Wheelz of Steel” and “Spaghetti Junction” where Dre and Big Boi trade off verses. The transitions between songs, especially as the mix goes on, get lazy. Because this took a long ass time to put together.
I always wondered who spent the time putting together YouTube video like the one of Nicolas Cage losing his shit, or Jim Carrey falling. I respect them for entertaining me but feel sorry for how much time they must have spent watching movies, getting excited whenever Nic Cage freaks out or Jim Carrey falls, and then editing the whole thing together. Now I know why people do it. They do it to feel good about themselves, which I did for a bit. But now I feel terrible about myself because this big ass audio file wouldn’t upload to Audiomack and I had to upload it as a YouTube video and it’s going to take forever.
If any of us learned anything today, it’s that doing things like this for the internet only leaves you empty inside. Also that Big Boi is a great solo rapper that IS BETTER THAN ANDRE 3000 not really but kinda.
