Stankonia

You’d be hard-pressed to find a music fan who was around for Outkast’s 2000 opus Stankonia and doesn’t remember that album’s impact. The Aquemini follow-up catapulted the Atlanta duo from their status as the foremost spokespeople for Southern hip-hop to bona fide pop-culture celebrities whose reach and influence—though still very much rooted in rap—extended far beyond a single genre. Stankonia’s singles were monsters, to be sure, but once you get past the apocalyptic frenzy of “B.O.B. (Bombs Over Baghdad),” the off-kilter balladering of “Ms. Jackson,” and the snap-along funk of “So Fresh, So Clean,” what do casual fans actually remember about Stankonia? Can they call out the alien synth warbles and fiery Killer Mike verse of “Snappin’ & Trappin’”? Do they remember the cacophonous beat switch for André 3000’s verse on “Humble Mumble”? Do they scrunch up their faces when they think of the hard-as-nails posse cut “Gangsta Sh*t”? Would their hearts sink if you were to bring up “Toilet Tisha”? Outkast had always gone their own way, but the album that would land them a KIDZ BOP rendition also has guest verses from steely rap veterans B-Real and Khujo Goodie, a song entitled “?” where Andre alone sounds off for a single fitful verse, and “I’ll Call B4 I Cum,” featuring the queen of Memphis hip-hop Gangsta Boo. Stankonia’s sonics are built on fuzzy rock guitar and unendingly funky basslines directly descendent from Parliment-Funkadelic’s trippiest material, and it sounds as otherworldly decades later as it did when it was up against other chart-shaking, much more straight-ahead projects of 2000, like Nelly’s Country Grammar, Eminem’s The Marshall Mathers LP, and JAŸ-Z’s The Dynasty - Roc La Familia.