The Love Below

Over the past month, I've been listening to the new double CD from the Outkast, Speakerboxx/The Love Below. Actually, I've mainly been hooked on Andre 3000's half The Love Below. The "Hey Ya" single is nice, catchy, etc. But the rest of the album is much better. It's full of citations (Geto Boys, Ice Cube, Prince, John Coltrane, Rick James, Jimi Hendrix), and refuses to settle into any single mode. For me, it answers the question Mos Def talked about on his album Black on Both Sides (1999) : "Where do you think hip hop is going?"

According to Andre 3000, it's going toward its eclectic, hybrid roots. It's embracing jazz, rock, its former selves (1980s, 1990s), classical, Broadway musicals, classic love songs, and whatever can be made to fit within two turntables & a mic. Which is everything. It is like Borges' library: "The universe (which others call hip hop)..."