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Best Posts: Outkast - Aquemini (Revisited)

  1. Oldboy
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    Oldboy

    May 13, 2015
    we will be making one of these threads on a weekly basis from now on
     
    #4
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  2. WPG
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    WPG sxn80 Rory Gilmore

    May 13, 2015
    i get mocked for saying the kendrick album is derivative, then people pop out of the woodwork saying they've never listened to outkast, god
     
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  3. lil uzi vert stan
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    lil uzi vert stan

    May 13, 2015
    1a. How old were you when Aquemini was released and did you hear it when it first came out? What was your reaction? I was 12, and obviously I heard Rosa Parks. For a sixth grader mostly afraid of black music (and their usually scary/impenetrable imagery), I found it to be catchy but very foreign. Was not sure what to make of it.

    2. Today, how does it hold up sonically? Does it still sound fresh?
    Obviously a classic album. Not my favorite Outkast album, granted, but their fusion of funk and southern psychedelic hip-hop have a real timeless quality. We often reflect on how dated songs from the 90s sound -- nsync, etc. Outkast holds up alarmingly well.

    3. What about content-wise? Does its theme or subject matter make it feel dated or is it timeless?
    To an extent, the sound/Atlanta themes were distinguishing them from coastal hip hop... most of the songs still resonant to me.

    4. What are the best and worst songs on Aquemini?
    Da Art of Storytellin' parts 1 and 2. Nathaniel. the harmonica break on rosa parks
    Liberation

    5. What albums, if any, do you see it still influencing today?
    Clearly Kendrick. Probably Open Mike Eagle

    6. Will Aquemini still be part of the hip-hop zeitgeist 10 years from now?
    Yes
     
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  4. DKC
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    DKC shortygonletmecrush

    May 13, 2015
    This is hopefully going to be a weekly thread on sxn80 where we revisit influential or otherwise popular albums from years past. First up:

    Outkast - Aquemini [1998]
    [​IMG]

    1a. How old were you when Aquemini was released and did you hear it when it first came out? What was your reaction?
    1b. If not, when did you first hear Aquemini? How do you think listening to it at a later date affected your view of it?

    2. Today, how does it hold up sonically? Does it still sound fresh?

    3. What about content-wise? Does its theme or subject matter make it feel dated or is it timeless?

    4. What are the best and worst songs on Aquemini?

    5. What albums, if any, do you see it still influencing today?

    6. Will Aquemini still be part of the hip-hop zeitgeist 10 years from now?
     
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  5. WPG
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    WPG sxn80 Rory Gilmore

    May 13, 2015
    on topic:

    i probably heard aquemini for the first time in 2003. it was among the albums that i first got into when i started listening to rap, and i had minimal outside direction so i went in with relatively little baggage or context. if anything, it was more of a vacuum than those who got it the week of its release. honestly, i wish that weren't the case--the effect dre's talking about on return of the g must have been so powerful for those who had watched them from '94 on. (that is probably my pick for the best verse to open an album, ever.)

    outkast's music sounds remarkably, preposterously fresh now and likely always will. it defies reason. i would love to hear someone try to argue that this isn't one of the most enduring catalogs in all of rap music, this album especially.

    people have covered kendrick. i would add that the way aquemini incorporated funk is one of the only meaningful advancements of the way quik and dre were doing it in the early '90s. i think you could argue that a good deal of 2011-present hip-hop that deals with instrumental samples and isn't boom bap traces its dna back to dungeon family records, though soul food remains the most under-appreciated set of beats ever.

    aquemini will always be held as a masterpiece. i think i listen to it more than atliens, speakerboxxx and idlewild, but less than southernplatalistic and stankonia. it's probably better than southern, definitely better than stankonia. it's beautiful, it's brilliant, it's better than all but, i don't know, ten albums(?) in the genre's history.
     
    #33
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  6. aquaberryares
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    aquaberryares one time I made sex

    May 13, 2015
    Will reply to this when i get out of work. One of my favorite albums oat
     
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  7. M.I.C.
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    M.I.C.

    May 13, 2015
    baby did u hear that ya baby i heard it 2
     
    #52
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  8. WPG
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    WPG sxn80 Rory Gilmore

    May 13, 2015
    if you're serious about understanding any form (literature, film, anything), you fight through this. of course stuff made twenty years ago sounds a little bit foreign to you. that's on you, not the work. it'll go away forever if you put in a modicum of effort in the short term.
     
    #43
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  9. WPG
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    WPG sxn80 Rory Gilmore

    May 13, 2015
    skippy doesn't strike me as that dumb. if you listen to rap even half-seriously it should be painfully obvious how great and how timeless illmatic is.
     
    #36
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  10. Packman
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    Packman

    May 13, 2015
    I've never heard Aquemini :emoji_flushed::gun:

    That'll change today tho
     
    #3
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  11. DKC
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    DKC shortygonletmecrush

    May 15, 2015
    lol I'm so sorry your first experience with Chonkyfire had to be that horrible "slippin on my swag juice" s---. :laff::vom:

    Nothin will beat the original, but Kid Cudi does a pretty good rendition of it IMO:


    Anyway, I need to answer my own questions:

    1a. How old were you when Aquemini was released and did you hear it when it first came out? What was your reaction?
    I was 8. Probably heard Rosa Parks but I don't remember, def didn't hear it in full.
    1b. If not, when did you first hear Aquemini? How do you think listening to it at a later date affected your view of it?
    First time I heard it was probably in high school. I had really narrow taste so it was a little too weird for me. Tbh the only Outkast albums I liked in HS were Speakerboxxx (album was huge when I was in like 7th grade) and Southernplayalistic. It wasn't until college where I expanded my tastes (got into soul and funk) and music became a legitimate interest of mine that I really delved into their discography.

    2. Today, how does it hold up sonically? Does it still sound fresh?
    Listened to it yesterday, and as many have said, it could have come out last week and have sounded amazing (look at people's reactions to TPAB ). It still does sound amazing.

    3. What about content-wise? Does its theme or subject matter make it feel dated or is it timeless?
    Like its overall sound, OutKast's content is pretty enduring. There's no way a song like Slump could ever go out of style.

    4. What are the best and worst songs on Aquemini?
    I think Mamacita is really annoying, I usually skip it. But Chonkyfire, Skew it on the Barbie, West Savannah...pretty much every other song is viable for a #1 spot.

    5. What albums, if any, do you see it still influencing today?
    TPAB, as everyone has said. I remember mentioning its Outkast influence to @Koolo during our skype chat the first time I listened to it. Danny Brown and Freddie Gibbs did a nice homage to Return of the G on Old. There's some definite outkast influence on Tut's Preacher's Son.

    6. Will Aquemini still be part of the hip-hop zeitgeist 10 years from now?
    Yes, it's one of the best rap albums of all time. Maybe top ten, very easily top 25.
     
    #68
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  12. Narsh
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    Narsh

    May 13, 2015
    I think TBTB, the album version of i (skits included), wesley's theory, institutionalized, u, and hood politics all work rather well.
     
    #31
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  13. Oldboy
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    Oldboy

    May 13, 2015
    tpab was influenced by outkast 100%
     
    #16
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