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Speakerboxxx/The Love Below is the fifth studio album by American hip hop duo OutKast, released September 23, 2003 on LaFace Records in the United States. Issued as a double album, its playtime of more than two hours is distributed over two solo albums from both of the group's members. Speakerboxxx is the solo project of Big Boi, performing tracks that are rooted in Southern hip hop,^[1] while The Love Below, the solo project of André 3000, covers musical styles such as soul, pop, funk, and jazz.^[2]

Speakerboxxx/The Love Below received general acclaim from most music critics, earning praise for the consistency of Big Boi's Speakerboxxx and the eclectic musical style of André 3000's The Love Below. The album was supported with the hit singles "Hey Ya!" and "The Way You Move", which both reached number 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. As part of its success, the album won a Grammy Award for Album of the Year, making it the second hip hop album to win the award. In 2009, NME ranked Speakerboxxx/The Love Below number 44 on its list of the top 100 greatest albums of the decade,^[3] while Newsweek ranked the album #1 on its list of the ten best albums of the decade.^[4]

Background[link]

Speakerboxxx/The Love Below represented a departure from Outkast's previous work. First of all, the album worked as two albums on a single set, with the first (Speakerboxxx) working as a Big Boi solo project and the second (The Love Below) as an André solo album. Critics pointed to this fact, and some felt what initially limits the album finally helps it succeed artistically. Stephen Thomas Erlewine compared this expanded creative freedom between each members of the group with what happened to The Beatles in 1968, saying "the effect is kind of like if the Beatles issued The White Album as one LP of Lennon tunes, the other of McCartney songs — the individual records may be more coherent, but the illusion that the group can do anything is tarnished. By isolating themselves from each other, Big Boi and Andre 3000 diminish the idea of OutKast slightly, since the focus is on the individuals, not the group. Which, of course, is part of the point of releasing solo albums under the group name — it's to prove that the two can exist under the umbrella of the OutKast aesthetic while standing as individuals." ^[5]

Most critics were also particularly more interested in André's half of the album than in Big Boi's solo venture, due to the experimentation with several music genres on The Love Below. The intro of the album was already a trip on classical music, "Love Hater" has purely jazz influences (apart from a cover of "My Favorite Things", a Rodgers and Hammerstein tune), and the rest was a combination of soul, funk, R&B, and hip-hop. Will Hermes from Entertainment Weekly pointed that André's album "is as strange and rich a trip as pop offers nowadays, a song cycle about love's battle against fear and (self-) deception that's frequently profound, hilarious, and very, very sexy." ^[6] Prince's influences are very notable on André 3000, as it is particularly noted on the track "She Lives in My Lap" (very reminiscent to Prince's "She's Always in My Hair"), a funky piece where Dré's voice is accompanied by a female voice in a style similar to the one of Prince's bandmates Diamond and Pearl. The Love Below also found André singing more than rapping (a fact that found criticism on many fans familiarized with OutKast previous style). Hermes noted: "Dre sings more than raps here, which could be a problem, as his nasal drawl isn't the greatest instrument. But hip-hop, like punk, is about making magic with limited means through the sheer force of creative will, and whether he's cooing baby noises on the Goth-soul cha-cha Pink & Blue or scatting with multiplatinum siren Norah Jones on the interlude Take Off Your Cool, Dre's limitations read here like strengths."

The Love Below is substantially longer than Big Boi's Speakerboxxx, clocking in at almost 78 minutes, compared to 56 minutes for Speakerboxxx. Featured guests on Speakerboxxx include Sleepy Brown, Jazze Pha, Jay-Z, Cee-Lo Green, Killer Mike, Goodie Mob, Lil' Jon and Ludacris. Guests on The Love Below include Rosario Dawson, Norah Jones, Kelis, and Fonzworth Bentley. Songs that were to be featured on The Love Below included "Millionaire" featuring Kelis and "Long Way to Go" featuring Gwen Stefani. Those two were scrapped, and instead included in the collaborators' own albums—Tasty and Love. Angel. Music. Baby., respectively. Big Boi included André 3000 in producing and co-writing on four tracks from Speakerboxxx, while on The Love Below, the only song featuring a verse by Big Boi is "Roses".^[7]

Reception[link]

Commercial performance[link]

After having had three number two-albums on the U.S. Billboard 200, OutKast enjoyed their first chart-topping album with Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. The album debuted at number one during the week of October 11, 2003, selling more than 510,000 copies in its first week. It became the second-biggest debut for a double album during the Soundscan-era (beginning in 1991). The album sold 235,000 copies in its second week, holding its position atop the Billboard chart. Speakerboxxx/The Love Below spent the next three weeks in the top 5 before returning to the top spot for one more week. Sales remained strong, and the album would spend another four weeks at #1 between January and February 2004. In all, Speakerboxxx/The Love Below amassed a total of seven weeks at #1, 24 weeks in the Top 10, and 56 weeks on the Billboard 200. Speakerboxxx/The Love Below has been certified diamond and 11 times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for shipping more than 11 million units (in this case, 5.5 million double album sets, which are double-counted by the RIAA).^[8]

The single "Hey Ya!" went to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States, topping the charts there for 9 weeks. It was the act's second #1 single, following 2001's "Ms. Jackson". "Hey Ya!" also topped the singles charts in Canada and Australia, and charted in 28 countries around the world. "Hey Ya!" was also the first platinum download on iTunes. Followup single "The Way You Move" knocked "Hey Ya!" off the top of the charts in the U.S. in February 2004, just the seventh time a recording act replaced itself at number one. "The Way You Move" topped the singles chart for one week. The third single released from the album was "Roses" from The Love Below, which reached #9. The fourth and fifth singles released, "Prototype" (The Love Below) and "GhettoMusick" (Speakerboxxx), did not chart.

Critical response[link]

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[9]
Robert Christgau	A−[10]
Entertainment Weekly	A[11]
The Guardian	[12]
Los Angeles Times	[13]
Pitchfork Media	8.0/10[14]
PopMatters	favorable[15]
Rolling Stone	[16]
Slant Magazine	[2]
The Village Voice	favorable[17]

Upon its release, Speakerboxxx/The Love Below received general acclaim from most music critics.^[18] At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 91, based on 25 reviews, which indicates "universal acclaim".^[18] Allmusic writer Stephen Thomas Erlewine gave it 4½ out of 5 stars and stated "Both records are visionary, imaginative listens, providing some of the best music of 2003, regardless of genre".^[9] Entertainment Weekly's Will Hermes gave the album an A rating and stated "[The album's] ambition flies so far beyond that of anyone doing rap right now (or pop, or rock, or R&B)".^[11] Los Angeles Times writer Kris Ex gave it 4 out of 4 stars and called it "a cohesive statement", praising both albums' musical quality.^[13] In his review for Blender, Ex gave the album 5 out of 5 stars and expressed that it "holds an explosion of creativity that couldn’t have been contained in just one LP".^[19] The Guardian's Dorian Lynskey described both albums as "sublime... hip-hop's Sign o' the Times or The White Album: a career-defining masterpiece of breathtaking ambition".^[12]

However, Rolling Stone writer Jon Caramanica gave the album three out of five stars and expressed a mixed response towards André 3000's "right to be peculiar in a hip-hop context".^[20] Despite noting musical indulgence as a weakness, Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine commended OutKast's ambition and stated "The Love Below is more consistent than Speakerboxxx. Still, as was probably intended, the double-album is greater than the sum of its parts, and this kind of expertly crafted pop and deftly executed funk rarely happen at the same time—not since Stankonia, at least".^[2] Adversely, Brent DiCrescenzo found Speakerboxxx superior to The Love Below and stated that the former "manages to maintain consistent brilliance and emotional complexity throughout".^[14] John Mulvey of NME gave it an 8/10 rating and described its two discs as "two Technicolor explosions of creativity that people will be exploring, analysing and partying to for years".^[21] Cynthia Fuchs of PopMatters described it as "imperfect and ambitious, sometimes startling and always smart".^[15] Stylus Magazine's Nick Southall gave Speakerboxxx/The Love Below an A+ rating and called it "a series of spectacular moments and memorable events".^[22]

Andy Gill of The Independent gave it 5 out of 5 stars and wrote that it "sets a new benchmark not just for hip hop, but for pop in general".^[23] Greg Tate of The Village Voice drew comparisons to P-Funk on Speakerboxxx and Prince on The Love Below.^[17] In his consumer guide for The Village Voice, critic Robert Christgau gave the album an A- rating,^[10] indicating "the kind of garden-variety good record that is the great luxury of musical micromarketing and overproduction. Anyone open to its aesthetic will enjoy more than half its tracks".^[24] Christgau expressed that the album may have been "the classic P-Funk rip it ain't quite" had Speakerboxxx alone been issued with "Roses", "Spread", "Hey Ya!", and "an oddity of [André 3000's] choosing", but ultimately wrote favorably of its "commercial ebullience, creative confidence, and wretched excess, blessed excess, impressive excess".^[10] In a retrospective review, Rolling Stone's Roni Sarig gave the album 4½ out of 5 stars and offered a general overview of its music, stating "Big Boi's Speakerboxxx drops cutting-edge hip-hop that's at turns freaky and socially aware. Andre 3000's The Love Below eschews hip-hop almost entirely with a set of jazzy pop funk steeped in the eclectic influence of Prince... [F]or sheer breadth, ambition, and musical vision, there's little doubt Speakerboxxx/The Love Below is a classic".^[16]

Accolades[link]

Speakerboxxx/The Love Below was voted as the best album of the year in The Village Voice Pazz & Jop critics poll. The album was nominated for six Grammy Awards, winning three (Album of the Year, Best Urban/Alternative Performance for "Hey Ya!", and Best Rap Album). OutKast's other nominations were for Producer of the Year, and Best Short-Form Music Video and Record of the Year, both for "Hey Ya!". Speakerboxxx/The Love Below was the second hip hop album to receive the Grammy for Album of the Year (following The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill in 1999). In Australia, "Hey Ya!" was voted number two on the 2003 Triple J Hottest 100, the country's biggest alternative music poll of its type. The jazz periodical Down Beat chose it as the best "beyond" album.

Track listing[link]

[edit] Speakerboxxx

Producers are noted with superscripts:
(a) Big Boi, (b) André 3000, (c) Mr. DJ, (d) Carl Mo & Big Boi, (e) Cutmaster Swiff, (f) Big Boi & Mr. DJ.

[edit] The Love Below

All tracks were produced solely by André 3000 except "Roses", which was co-produced by Dojo5.

Sample credits[link]

• "Ghetto Musick", from Speakerboxxx, contains samples of "Love, Need & Want You" by Patti LaBelle.
• The first few seconds of "Intro" from Speakerboxxx is a sample of the beginning of the song Europop from the Eiffel 65 album of the same name.
• "She Lives in My Lap", from The Love Below, contains samples of "Mind Playing Tricks on Me" by Geto Boys and "Pistolgrip-Pump" by Volume 10.
• "Pink & Blue", from The Love Below, contains samples of "Age Ain't Nothing But a Number" by Aaliyah and "Why Can't We Live Together" by Timmy Thomas.
• "My Favorite Things" from The Love Below contains samples from John Coltrane's 1960 recording by the same name.

Charts[link]

Chart procession and succession[link]

Personnel[link]

See also[link]

• List of best-selling albums in the United States

References[link]

External links[link]

• Speakerboxxx/The Love Below at Discogs
• Speakerboxxx/The Love Below at Metacritic
• International chart positions at acharts.us

Big Boi
Big Boi performing in 2006 in Atlanta, Georgia.
Background information
Birth name	Antwan André Patton
Also known as	Daddy Fat Sax, General Patton, Sir Lucious L. Leftfoot, The Son of Chico Dusty, Sgt. Slaughter, Chief, Billy Ocean, Hot Tub Tony, Francis the Savannah Chitlin' Pimp
Born	(1975-02-01) February 1, 1975 (age 37) Savannah, Georgia, U.S.
Origin	Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
Genres	Southern hip hop
Instruments	Rapping, keyboards
Years active	1991–present
Labels	Def Jam
Associated acts	OutKast, André 3000, Dungeon Family, Purple Ribbon All-Stars, Mary J. Blige, Janelle Monae, Killer Mike, Pill, Sleepy Brown, Yelawolf
Website	bigboi.com

Antwan André Patton (born February 1, 1975), better known by his stage name Big Boi, is an American rapper, song-writer, record producer and actor, best known for being a member of American hip hop duo OutKast alongside André 3000. His work in the duo has produced six studio albums. During the duo's hiatus, he and André 3000 each announced plans to release a solo album. Big Boi's solo debut Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty was released in July 2010 to respectable sales and critical acclaim.

Early life[link]

Patton was born and spent the first half of his childhood in Savannah, Georgia, attending Herschel V. Jenkins High School ^[1] before moving to Atlanta with his Aunt Renne. Eventually he decided to pursue his interest in music at Tri-Cities High School, a Visual and Performing Arts Magnet School.

Career[link]

OutKast[link]

He had a strong interest in hip-hop music, and met André "3000" Benjamin while attending Tri Cities High School in the early-1990s. The two eventually joined forces as OutKast and signed with LaFace Records.^[2]

Patton has often used his lyrics to criticize the problems that plague both the African American community and the world. An example is 2003's "War", a scathing attack on the Bush administration and the War on Terror. Another example is 2008's "Sumthin's Gotta Give" with Mary J. Blige talking about the state of America and Barack Obama.

Solo work[link]

After four increasingly successful albums as a duo, the members of OutKast chose to make two solo albums, and release them as a double album under the OutKast name. André 3000 released The Love Below and Big Boi Speakerboxxx. The two albums were packaged together as Speakerboxxx/The Love Below in 2003. Speakerboxxx featured a style similar to OutKast's previous efforts, while The Love Below explored more offbeat territory, with André 3000 mainly singing rather than his usual rapping. One song from each album was released in September 2003 as a single.

Patton's choice was the single "The Way You Move", featuring Sleepy Brown. It was originally supported by urban radio, but then crossed over to pop charts and became almost as big a pop hit as Benjamin's "Hey Ya!". "The Way You Move" supplanted "Hey Ya!" as the #1 song on the US pop charts. The second single from Big Boi's side of the album was "Ghetto Musick", which featured both members of OutKast and a sample from Patti LaBelle's "Love, Need & Want You".

In 2007 after the sixth album under the OutKast name, Idlewild, Big Boi announced plans to release a full fledged solo album. While he had released a previous solo album in Speakerboxxx, it still was technically under the OutKast name. The album was to be titled Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty. The album's first promotional single, "Royal Flush", was released in 2007, and featured Raekwon and André 3000. Over the next few years the album saw many delays, but multiple promotional and video singles were released such as "Shine Blockas" featuring Gucci Mane, "For Yo Sorrows" featuring George Clinton and Too $hort and "General Patton" featuring Big Rube. The first official single was "Shutterbugg" featuring Cutty and the second "Follow Us" featuring Vonnegutt. The album was released internationally on July 5. Guest artists include alternative urban songstress Janelle Monae; Big Boi's own new group Vonnegutt; plus established rappers T.I. and B.o.B.^[3] Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty received general acclaim from most music critics, earning praise for its inventive sound, varied musical style, and Big Boi's lyricism.^[4][5]

In a July 2010 interview for The Village Voice, Big Boi revealed that he is working on the follow-up album to Sir Lucious Left Foot, entitled Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors, stating that he is "maybe about six songs into it".^[6][7] It is expected for a late-2012 release.^[8]

On February 27, 2011, it was announced that Big Boi is creating a joint album along with rappers Mike Bigga and Pill.^[9] Later that day, Big Boi posted on his Twitter account that he was mixing Mike Bigga's album entitled, "PL3DGE".^[10]

Big Boi announced on May 24, 2012 that he was about 80% complete with his solo album. He also revealed that both he and Andre 3000 would be releasing solo projects prior to any Outkast project. ^[11]

Side projects[link]

Patton and Benjamin star in Idlewild, a film about music during the Depression-era South. The film was released in August 2006. Patton also has plans in the works for a project partnering him with Sleepy Brown. He released a mixtape/compilation album, Got Purp? Vol 2, in conjunction with the Purple Ribbon All-Stars in November 2005 on Purple Ribbon Records; Aquemeni Records had become defunct after Benjamin left the company. The first single from the album was "Kryptonite", which cracked the Billboard Hot 100 and was a hit on hip-hop radio. Patton was also featured on the song "International Players Anthem (I Choose You)", which is the first single off of UGK's new album, Underground Kingz.

In 2006, Big Boi founded the Big Kidz Foundation a nonprofit organization to help youth in Atlanta.^[12] The Foundation's mission is to provide culturally diverse experiences in the field of humanities while helping create socially-conscious youth. In January 2010, Big Boi and the Executive Director, Jennifer Shephard Lester launched the Big Kidz Foundation in Savannah, Georgia.

In 2010, Big Boi launched his custom Chuck Taylor sneakers with Converse.^[13] The shoes feature the title of his Def Jam solo album debut: "Sir Lucious Left Foot" on the left, and "Son of Chico Dusty" on the right. His Big Boi logo is featured on the tongue of the shoe.

On April 28, 2011, Big Boi announced that he would be working with Modest Mouse on their new unnamed album.^[14]

Acting career[link]

Big Boi appeared on Nick Cannon's Wild 'n Out Season 3 as one of the many guest stars, as well as guest starring and appearing as a musical guest on Chappelle's Show performing his song "The Rooster". He is currently reaching more into acting, having appeared in T.I.'s film ATL, OutKast's film Idlewild and starring in the recently released Who's Your Caddy?.

Big Boi is a playable character in the Def Jam: Icon videogame.

He appeared in the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Wildlife", which aired November 18, 2008. Big Boi played hip-hop artist "Got$ Money". ^[15]

Multidisciplinary collaborations[link]

In 2008, Big Boi began a collaboration on a new show with the Atlanta Ballet. The show, entitled big, premiered at the Fox Theater in Atlanta, April 10–13, 2008.^[16] The show was performed by Atlanta Ballet dancers, local youth and talent, as choreographed by Lauri Stallings. Music may be performed live onstage during the performance,^[17] as it was when the ballet created a live music/dance collaboration with the Indigo Girls.^[18]

Personal life[link]

Patton is married to Sherlita Patton, with whom he has two children: daughter Jordan and son Cross. Another child, a son named Bamboo, is from a previous relationship. Numerous references to the Patton family are present in Big Boi's rhymes. His younger brother James raps under the name "Lil' Brotha", and is a member of hip-hop group Konkrete, while 'Uncle Donell' was 'locked up in prison' (as mentioned in the song ATLiens) but has now been released. His other brothers, Marcus and Jason, also make their way onto some songs as well.

His wife Sherlita Patton is also the co-owner of a clothing boutique in Atlanta, Georgia called PValentine. She co-owns the store with Tracy Valentine. The expensive brands carried by the store and the ties to Big Boi attract many music artists and other celebrities to the store. The store was featured on an episode of MTV's My Super Sweet 16 when R&B artist Chris Brown went for a birthday gift from Big Boi. He is also a registered pit bull breeder.

In August 2011, Patton was returning from a cruise when a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement drug dog at the Port of Miami alerted officers. Patton was arrested and charged with illegal possession of controlled substances Viagra, ecstasy pills and MDMA powder. ^[19] Patton was released from the Miami-Dade County jail on a $16,000 bond.^[20][21]

Discography[link]

• 2010: Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty
• 2012: Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors^[22]

Filmography[link]

• 2006: ATL – as Marcus
• 2006: Idlewild – as Rooster
• 2007: Who's Your Caddy?– as C-Note, Christopher Hawkins
• 2009: ^[23]
• 2010: Freaknik: The Musical - as the Preacher

Video games[link]

• 2007: Def Jam: Icon – Himself

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Big Boi

• Official website
• Big Boi at the Internet Movie Database

Sleepy Brown (Patrick Brown)
Sleepy Brown performing in Detroit, Michigan.
Background information
Birth name	Patrick Brown
Born	(1970-01-24) January 24, 1970 (age 42)
Origin	Savannah, Georgia
Genres	R&B, Pop, Hip-Hop
Occupations	Singer
Years active	1995–present
Labels	Purple Ribbon Records
Associated acts	Organized Noize, OutKast
Website	sleepybrown.com

Patrick "Sleepy" Brown (born January 24, 1970 in Savannah, Georgia) is an R&B singer-songwriter, and record producer. He is one-third of the successful Atlanta-based production team of Organized Noize,^[1] which has created hits for acts such as OutKast, Goodie Mob, and TLC. TLC's "Waterfalls", penned by Brown and Organized Noize's Rico Wade and Ray Murray, was a #1 hit single on Billboard's Hot 100 in the summer of 1995.

Career[link]

Patrick Brown was born on January 24, 1970. ^[2][3] In his early days, Brown was fascinated with music and often used to carry around an old four-track machine and small keyboard everywhere he went.^[1] That earnestness appealed to Wade and Murray when they first met Brown around 1990. A talented keyboardist and advocate for live instrumentation, Brown developed into a multi-instrumentalist, mastering various types of synthesizers and electric pianos; however, his inclination for using samplers and drum machines always kept him rooted in hip hop.^[1] A personal milestone for Brown, however, was the opportunity to work with funk legend Curtis Mayfield in 1996, on his final album New World Order.^[1] In the early 2000s, Brown gradually ascended from behind the studio boards into the artist spotlight.^[1]

Besides his production work, Brown also records as an artist himself, both for his own recordings (including his 2004 single "I Can't Wait" from the Barbershop 2: Back in Business film soundtrack), and on songs with collaborators such as Beyoncé and Big Boi (on the latter's US #1 and UK #7 hit "The Way You Move").^[1][4] Brown independently released his debut solo album, Sleepy's Theme - The Vinyl Room in 1998. He was slated to release an album on the DreamWorks Records label. called 'For the Grown and Sexy', but the release was scrapped when DreamWorks label folded.^[1]