4. OutKast - Stankonia
I think it is a no brainer that this album made the list. "Bombs Over Bagdad" and "Ms. Jackson" were some of the biggest hits in 2000-01, especially Ms Jackson. Perhaps it was overplayed? Probably, but don't let that affect how you much you like the album, Stankonia is filled with classics - 24 tracks (including the interludes), you're bound to find something tight between Gasoline Dreams to Gangsta Shit. Stankonia was OutKast's forth studio album, and though their previous work was much praised, Stankonia was proof that the duo from Georgia meant business, perhaps not in their lyrics, but in the art of hip-hop. The two released Southernplayalistcadillacmuzik in 1994 and been putting out solid gold ever since. Stankonia, like other OutKast releases display the duo's lyrical ability and their individual styles - Big Boi traditionally raps about pimps, players, hoes, guns and Cadillacs, meanwhile Andre 3000 displays playful humor, tricky wordplay and sick metaphors. If you ever want to see how different Big Boi and Andree 3000 are just check out Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, their solo missions combined into one double-disk collaboration, that like Stankonia, runs shit.
Stankonia was also well received as the groups successful crossover album into the mainstream. Now, I'm not trying to say that old OutKast was not at all mainstream, what I mean is that Stankonia ventured away from the surreal intergalactic and space age rap as seen on ATLiens and Aquemini to more relative content. Listen to "Return of the 'G'," the intro track to Aquemini, at the end there is a skit that explains what I mean. "At first they were some pimps man, then there was some aliens or some genies, then talking about black rights in space man... I ain't fuckin' with them no more."
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