"B.O.B" / Outkast / Stankonia

Well, first of all thatnk to Merk for filling in for me. I'm back and well-rested. Hooray for Holiday break!

And what a song to retun with. Setting aside the actual music till later, I will say that this might be the best single of the '00s so far. It's also the single in which we here in Georgia lost Outkast to the whole wide world. Sure, there was "Rosa Parks", and before that "Elevators" and even before that "Player's Ball", and later Dre would conquor the whole damn world with "Hey Ya!", but up until "B.O.B" they had really been a genre based, regional hit.

"B.O.B" changed all that. I remember earing this for the first time and thinking, "Shit! Outkast is for real now". In the same way that you can tell Beatles songs as Paul's or John's, at this point you could start seeing Outkast songs as Dre's or Big Boi's. Of course, they later removed all doubt by releasing a double album that way, but you could see it coming. This was definitely a Dre song and was indicative of his exploration of other musical areas. First of all, that's a fuckin' Drum & Bass beat, which was brillant and unheard of in a rap song. Also, there's a guitar solo. In a rap song. That wasn't RUN DMC. This song got huge precisely because of that diversity - white folks who didn't like rap could dig it too. I think this even got played on 99x once or twice. I even remember it being played at Bumpers, for Chrissakes.

My favorite parts of this song: the countdown at the beginning accompanied by the musicbox chimes, followed by the "Yeah!" and hearing that beat come in. (It still gets me every time!), the chants in the chorus ("Bombs over Baaaghdaaad"), the drum fill at 2:33 that brings on the aforementioned guitar solo, then the second act of the song ("Bob your head - Ragtop") at 3:25, followed shortly by the AWESOME finish at the 5:00 mark, the "Power / Music / Electric Revival" chant that brings it home.

Outkast seems to be laying low right now, but let's hope they can find a way to make it work again. They could end up being one of the most important artists period when thier carrer is finished.