This isn't money/bitches/violence but a introspection about the desolation of the human condition. yes those topics are mentioned but they are not the focal point and just one of the many topics explored.
Aquemini from 1998 is their best album IMO. Though of this form Diet Butcher's US3 post. The nineties were just a great decade for music in retrospect.
For Aquemini, the duo used live instrumentation and improvisation, bringing a baby grand piano into the studio and hiring musicians who played "everything from stoner funk to prog rock". Producer Neal H. Pogue recalled, "That was the beauty of making all those records - having musicians come in and out. It was almost like a Motown, that's what we had. Or like a Stax Records thing. That's what I loved about it. It brought back that whole feeling of making records. It was organic.
Much of the music on Aquemini was formulated during jam sessions, in which one musician would begin with creating a chord pattern and the rest would incorporate their instruments following that sequence. While recording Aquemini, André 3000 drew influence from reggae music and listened to Bob Marley constantly during the sessions. After the musical aspects of a song were developed, André 3000 and Big Boi would then create lyrics that they felt would fit with the tone of the song.
OutKast wore their musical connections easily, and sometimes literally. The references to 70s funk and soul weren't just in the deep, colour-saturated funk underpinning the whole album ... It's also a very musical album. Sure, there are samples, but it's mostly real musicians playing guitars and horns, or in the case of the charmingly named South Central Chamber Orchestra, strings and woodwind.
I am from the South. Florida Born and Raise. Outkast was just a state away representing East Point, Atlanta Georgia. In between the huge East Coast/West Coast bttle of the 90's Southern Rap was growing. Now it is leads the way. In a sea of ghetto type of Rap form No limit/Cash money and Hypnotize minds Outkast had a message.
