Outkast Stankonia Full Album Zip
Thaiel Trask
Stankonia is the fourth studio album by the American hip hop duo Outkast. It was released on October 31, 2000, by LaFace Records. The album was recorded in the duo's recently purchased Atlanta recording facility Stankonia Studios, which allowed for fewer time and recording constraints, and featured production work from Earthtone III (a production team consisting of Outkast and Mr. DJ) and Organized Noize.
For the follow-up to their 1998 album Aquemini, the duo worked to create an expansive and experimental musical aesthetic, incorporating a diverse array of styles including funk, rave music, psychedelia, gospel, and rock within a Dirty South-oriented hip hop context.[2] During the recording sessions, André 3000 began moving beyond traditional rapping in favor of a more melodic vocal style, an approach to which Big Boi and several other producers were initially unaccustomed. Lyrically, the duo touched upon a wide range of subject matter, including sexuality, politics, misogyny, African-American culture, parenthood, and introspection. Stankonia featured appearances from a variety of local musicians discovered by the group while they were visiting clubs in their native city of Atlanta, Georgia.
Stankonia received universal acclaim from music critics upon its release, and has since been regarded by many to be one of the greatest hip hop albums of all time. The album debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 chart, selling over 530,000 copies the first week. It was supported by three singles: "B.O.B", "Ms. Jackson", and "So Fresh, So Clean"; "Ms. Jackson" became the group's first single to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100. At the 2001 Grammy Awards, Outkast won Best Rap Album for Stankonia and Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group for "Ms. Jackson". In 2003, the album was ranked number 359 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, 361 in a 2012 revision, and 64 in a 2020 reboot of the list.[3] A re-issue of the album for its 20th anniversary with previously unreleased remixes was released on October 30, 2020.[4]
In 1998, OutKast released their third album Aquemini to critical acclaim while diversifying and expanding their sound. The album's success also attracted national attention to the Southern hip hop scene.[5] Having collaborated on the Aquemini track "Skew It on the Bar-B", Wu-Tang Clan member Raekwon later recalled the duo's impact at the time: "Before that, the South just wasn't played in New York. But that song was hot, the flows was crazy. The cycle changed. It really opened up the door for Southern rappers."[5]
The recording of Stankonia began in spring of 1999 and lasted for about a year.[6] Owning a studio helped the band expand creatively, as the duo did not need to worry about time constraints that would occur with a rented studio.[7] André 3000 observed, "You can sit there and fuck with just a kick and a snare all day long if you want to ... You're not working on the clock. Really, you're just working on your mind."[7] Big Boi spent the majority of the recording time in the studio, while André 3000 worked at home, creating beats and experimenting with an acoustic guitar.[6] One song that came from a jam session on the guitar was "Ms. Jackson", the album's second single.[6] André 3000 also created song lyrics by writing words on the walls of his home: "I had planned to paint my house anyway; writing on the walls was just something I would do."[9] One stray lyric on his wall eventually developed into "Gasoline Dreams".[9]
Much of the album was formulated during "vibe sessions" in which the group and producers would visit clubs in downtown Atlanta, select performers they saw, and invite them to the studio.[10] They would then "sit around, smoke a few, drink a few", and create ideas for new songs.[10] However, recording sessions became difficult as André 3000 grew tired of rapping on songs, which made Big Boi and the producers uneasy about how the music would sound.[6] To maintain musical cohesion with Big Boi while continuing to expand his vocal palette, André decided to combine rapping with soul-inspired crooning, which had a major influence on Stankonia's sound.[6] "Snappin & Trappin'" features a guest appearance from then-unknown rapper Killer Mike. The rapper noted that while working with Outkast, he used the opportunity to try to "compete" with the duo to improve his rapping skills.[11] Big Boi was impressed with Killer Mike's abilities, noting, "When I first heard him spit, his voice was just so commanding. He's a very intelligent guy."[11]
While OutKast's previous albums were considered to be laid-back, mellow efforts, Stankonia contains faster, more high-energy tempos, partially to reflect the "chaotic times" at the end of the 20th century.[12] The group took note of new, harder drugs hitting the hip-hop scene and teenagers using ecstasy, cocaine, and methamphetamine.[12] Big Boi reflected, "Niggas living this life at a fast speed don't know what's going on around them. If you live fast, you gonna come out of here real fast, so the music need to show that."[12] While recording Stankonia, the band refrained from listening to hip-hop, "That music was starting to sound real comfortable. There wasn't any adventure to it."[13] Instead, the duo drew influence from musicians such as Jimi Hendrix, Little Richard, Prince, and George Clinton,[14] as well as Clinton's Parliament-Funkadelic collective.[15] However, the band refrained from producing a throwback sound with the record and instead hoped to utilize these influences in a modern, experimental fashion.[16] André 3000 stated that "I don't want this to be the generation that went back to '70s rock. You gotta take it and do new things with it."[14]
On Stankonia, OutKast experimented with a wide variety of musical genres. According to M. Matos of Vibe, Stankonia "turned the South's predominantly reclined hip-hop sound into something freaky and menacing."[9] AllMusic's Steve Huey said their experimentation resulted in "a trippy sort of techno-psychedelic funk".[17] "B.O.B" features "jittery drum'n'bass rhythms" and has been classified as a "stylistic tour de force" combining "Hendrix-ian" guitars, organs, and gospel vocals.[18][17] On the track, André 3000 and Big Boi employ a "frantic" flow in order to keep pace with the song's high-speed tempo, which runs at 155 beats per minute.[19][20] "Humble Mumble" is a salsa-influenced track that evolves into a club groove, while "Ms. Jackson" "marries early Prince with late P-Funk".[12][21] The smooth melodies of "I'll Call Before I Come" have also been likened to Prince.[7][22] "Gasoline Dreams" has been classified as a "gritty rock scorcher" comparable to the work of Public Enemy.[23] David Bry of Vibe detected a "polished 80's pimp strut" in "So Fresh, So Clean" and an "appreciative, fat-ass bounce" in "We Luv Deez Hoes".[24] The album ends with three psychedelic-influenced tracks, "Toilet Tisha", "Slum Beautiful", and "Stankonia (Stank Love)".[24] "Stankonia (Stank Love)" has also been described as an "homage of sorts" to gospel choirs and '60s doo-wop groups, while also including a slowed down coda reminiscent of chopped and screwed hip hop.[25]
I think what's really interesting about this album is that it is absolutely Southern hip-hop, but there is a part that is very conscious of the world around them. You're seeing these dichotomies play out, the sort of balance between mainstream hip-hop and the conscious hip-hop era. We have to remember that, at this particular time, those two genres are starting to branch off. And the thing is, Stankonia encompasses all that.
According to Miles Marshall Lewis, Stankonia is among the most "eclectic" of mainstream progressive rap albums from its time.[27] 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."[28] "Gasoline Dreams" assails the "bling-bling" aspirations of contemporary black culture, instead presenting a sobering view of circumstances upending the world in Outkast's perspective ("I hear that Mother Nature's now on birth control / The coldest pimp be lookin' for somebody to hold").[29] "Red Velvet" discusses the materialistic nature of the hip hop scene in particular,[28] while "Humble Mumble" addresses critics who make negative assumptions about hip hop based on preconceived notions; André 3000 raps in the song: "I met a critic / I made her shit her draws / She said she thought hip hop was only guns and alcohol / I said oh hell naw / but yet it's that too / You can't discrima-hate cause you done read a book or two."[30]
The album commonly features the words "stank" and "smell" in their blues-rooted definition to mean "low-down, blunt, pungent: a measure of authenticity".[31] Outkast often incorporates word play into the lyrics, including "Humble Mumble"'s references to the "underground smellroad" and chants of "I stank I can, I stank I can", an allusion to The Little Engine That Could.[31] The duo offers encouragement for maturity and facing adversity on the song, beginning with Big Boi's verse advising that "everything in life don't always happen like it's supposed to" while referencing Isaiah 54:17 ("No weapon formed against me prospers"). Meanwhile, André 3000 frames his perspective in the context of progressing African Americans collectively: "The game changes every day, so obsolete is the fist and marches / Speeches only reaches those who already know about it". Erykah Badu, his ex-girlfriend and friend at the time, concludes "Humble Mumble" with a "soaring metaphysical gospel verse that celebrate[s] the circle of life", as pop-culture writer Roni Sarig details.[29]
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