Stankonia

Stankonia
Studio album by OutKast
Released October 31, 2000
Recorded 1999–2000
Stankonia Recording
(Atlanta, Georgia)
Genre Hip hop, neo soul
Length 73:17
Label LaFace/Arista
Producer Earthtone III (OutKast) Organized Noize
OutKast chronology
Aquemini
(1998)		 Stankonia
(2000)		 Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
(2003)
Alternate cover
Limited Edition cover
Singles from Stankonia
  1. "B.O.B"
    Released: September 19, 2000
  2. "Ms. Jackson"
    Released: January 2, 2001
  3. "So Fresh, So Clean"
    Released: March 13, 2001

Stankonia is the fourth studio album by American hip hop duo OutKast, released October 31, 2000 on La Face Records. The album debuted at number 2 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart, selling over 530,000 copies the first week. Stankonia received general acclaim from most music critics, based on an aggregate score of 95/100 from Metacritic.[1] It received rave reviews from publications such as USA Today and the Los Angeles Times.[2][3] It was also voted as the best album of the year in The Village Voice Pazz & Jop critics' poll. In 2003, the album was ranked number 359 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Contents

Music

Stank, a commonly used word on the album, is derived from a southern U.S. pronunciation of stink, the original meaning of the word funk. George Clinton applied the term stank to the more carnal, hedonistic things in life, including funk music. "Stankonia" is the name of a fictional land at "the center of the earth, seven light years below sea level", which is "the place from which all 'funky thangs' come", according to the album's opening lyrics. The lyrical content is divided between verses from Big Boi and André 3000. The artists describe themselves as "a player and a poet", respectively, and this is reflected in the lyrics; Big Boi tends to deal with standard gangsta fare (such as guns, hoes, and pimping on songs such as "Snappin & Trappin" and "We Luv Deez Hoez") while André 3000 talks about other elements of "stanking", using metaphors about elephants, ski slopes, and the four humours.

Part of the reason for Stankonia's acclaim and popularity was the diversity of its musical influences, which led to comparisons to Prince. It incorporates many musical genres to create a unique-sounding whole. For example, the album opens with Indian tablas and harmonium, then launching into a heavy metal-style electric guitar riff on "Gasoline Dreams" before turning to slick P-funk on the second song (fourth track overall) "So Fresh, So Clean". The album also incorporates influences from gospel, ("Toilet Tisha"), samba ("Humble Mumble") and drum and bass ("B.O.B."). This stylistic diversity was tied together by the pseudo-psychedelic production, emphasizing trippy synthesizers, spacey sound effects, techno-tinged percussion, and weird 70s-style psychedelic funk, updated in a more contemporary hip-hop context. The album's cover is an homage to Sly & the Family Stone's There's a Riot Goin' On.

Artwork

Its limited edition artwork features a computer-generated image of a subset of the Mandelbrot set, a fractal.

Critical reception

 Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic 5/5 stars[4]
Robert Christgau (A)[5]
Entertainment Weekly (A)[6]
The New York Times (favorable)[7]
NME (9/10)[8]
PopMatters (favorable)[9]
Rolling Stone 4/5 stars[10]
Sputnikmusic 4.5/5 stars[11]
USA Today 4/4 stars[2]
The Village Voice (favorable)[12]

Robert Christgau of The Village Voice gave it an A rating and described Stankonia as "comic and expansive P-Funk".[5] Allmusic gave the album 5 out of 5 stars and wrote "given the variety of moods, it helps that the album is broken up by brief, usually humorous interludes, which serve as a sort of reset button. It takes a few listens to pull everything together, but given the immense scope, it's striking how few weak tracks there are".[4] Entertainment Weekly's Ken Tucker wrote that "Stankonia reeks of artful ambition rendered with impeccable skill" and gave the album an A rating.[6] Stankonia is the fourth-highest ranked album of the century on Metacritic with a score of 95, indicating "universal acclaim".[1]

In 2006, Time magazine named Stankonia as one of the 100 best albums of all time.[13] In 2009, Pitchfork Media ranked Stankonia #13 on its list of the top 200 albums of the 2000s, and Rhapsody ranked it at #2 on its "100 Best Albums of the Decade" list.[14][15] Rhapsody also ranked the album #6 on its "Hip-Hop’s Best Albums of the Decade" list.[16] Entertainment Weekly put it on its end-of-the-decade "best-of" list, saying, "With hummable hits ('Ms. Jackson') and out-there experiments ('B.O.B.'), the rap duo gave us all a visa to the funky if fictional land of Stankonia in 2000."[17]

Track listing

No. Title Producer(s) Length
1. "Intro"   Earthtone III 1:09
2. "Gasoline Dreams" (featuring Khujo Goodie) Earthtone III 3:34
3. "I'm Cool" (Interlude) Earthtone III 0:42
4. "So Fresh, So Clean"   Organized Noize 4:00
5. "Ms. Jackson"   Earthtone III 4:30
6. "Snappin' & Trappin'" (featuring Killer Mike & J-Sweet) Earthtone III 4:19
7. "D.F." (Interlude) Earthtone III 0:27
8. "Spaghetti Junction"   Organized Noize 3:57
9. "Kim & Cookie" (Interlude) Earthtone III 1:12
10. "I'll Call Before I Come" (featuring Gangsta Boo & Eco) Earthtone III 4:18
11. "B.O.B."   Earthtone III 5:04
12. "Xplosion" (featuring B-Real) Earthtone III 4:08
13. "Good Hair" (Interlude) Earthtone III 0:14
14. "We Luv Deez Hoez" (featuring Backbone & Big Gipp) Organized Noize 4:10
15. "Humble Mumble" (featuring Erykah Badu) Earthtone III 4:50
16. "Drinkin' Again" (Interlude) Earthtone III 0:24
17. "?"   Earthtone III 1:29
18. "Red Velvet"   Earthtone III 3:52
19. "Cruisin' in the ATL" (Interlude) Earthtone III 0:19
20. "Gangsta Shit" (featuring Slimm Calhoun, C-Bone & T-Mo) Earthtone III 4:41
21. "Toilet Tisha"   Earthtone III 4:24
22. "Slum Beautiful" (featuring Cee-Lo) Earthtone III 4:07
23. "Pre-Nump" (Interlude) Earthtone III 0:27
24. "Stankonia (Stanklove)" (featuring Big Rube & Sleepy Brown) Earthtone III 6:50
Notes

Chart performance

Chart (2000) Peak
position
U.S. Billboard 200 2
U.S. Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums 2
Top Canadian Albums 4

Personnel

OutKast:

  • Big Boi (Antwan Patton) - vocals, production
  • André 3000 (Andre Benjamin) - vocals, synthesisers, production
  • Mr. DJ (David Sheats) - production

Guest performers

  • Sleepy Brown
  • Khujo Goodie
  • Killer Mike
  • J-Sweet
  • Gangsta Boo
  • Eco
  • B-Real (of Cypress Hill)
  • Erykah Badu
  • Backbone
  • Big Gipp
  • Slimm Calhoun
  • C-Bone
  • T-Mo Goodie
  • Cee-Lo Goodie
  • Big Rube
  • Joi

Instrumentalists:

  • Donnie Mathis - guitar
  • David "Whild" Brown - guitar
  • Jason Freeman - horns
  • Jerry Freeman - horns
  • Sleepy Brown - piano, synthesised bass
  • Marvin "Chanz" Parkman - piano, keyboards
  • Earthtone III & Organized Noize - keyboards
  • Preston Crump - bass guitar, synthesized bass
  • Aaron Mills - bass guitar
  • Robert Grister - bass guitar
  • Dookie Blossumgame - bass guitar
  • Victor Alexander - drums

Other people:

  • Rosalin Heard - backing vocals
  • Paul Douglas-Feddon-backing vocals
  • Myrna "Screechy Peach" Crenshaw - backing vocals
  • Cutmaster Swift - cuts
  • Michael Lavine - photography

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Stankonia (2000): Reviews. Metacritic. Retrieved on 2009-07-09.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Jones, Steve. Review: Stankonia. USA Today. Retrieved on 2009-10-10.
  3. ↑ Staff. Review: Stankonia. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved on 2009-10-10.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Huey, Steve. Review: Stankonia. Allmusic. Retrieved on 2010-03-31.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Christgau, Robert. "Consumer Guide: Stankonia". The Village Voice: November 28, 2000. Retrieved on 2009-10-10.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Tucker, Ken. Review: Stankonia. Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved on 2009-10-10.
  7. ↑ Pareles, Jon. Review: Stankonia. The New York Times. Retrieved on 2009-10-10.
  8. ↑ Bardowell, Derek A. "Review: Stankonia". NME: 41. November 18, 2000.
  9. ↑ Hight, Aishah. Review: Stankonia. PopMatters. Retrieved on 2009-10-10.
  10. ↑ Brackett, Nathan. Review: Stankonia. Rolling Stone. Retrieved on 2009-10-10.
  11. ↑ Arp, Louis. Review: Stankonia. Sputnikmusic. Retrieved on 2009-10-10.
  12. ↑ Green, Tony. Review: Stankonia. The Village Voice. Retrieved on 2009-10-10.
  13. ↑ The All-TIME 100 Albums
  14. ↑ The Top 200 Albums of the 2000s: 13) Stankonia. Pitchfork Media. Retrieved on 2009-10-10.
  15. ↑ "Rhapsody's 100 Best Albums of the Decade" Retrieved 12 January 2010.
  16. ↑ "Hip-Hop’s Best Albums of the Decade" Retrieved 12 January 2010.
  17. ↑ Geier, Thom; Jensen, Jeff; Jordan, Tina; Lyons, Margaret; Markovitz, Adam; Nashawaty, Chris; Pastorek, Whitney; Rice, Lynette; Rottenberg, Josh; Schwartz, Missy; Slezak, Michael; Snierson, Dan; Stack, Tim; Stroup, Kate; Tucker, Ken; Vary, Adam B.; Vozick-Levinson, Simon; Ward, Kate (December 11, 2009), "THE 100 Greatest MOVIES, TV SHOWS, ALBUMS, BOOKS, CHARACTERS, SCENES, EPISODES, SONGS, DRESSES, MUSIC VIDEOS, AND TRENDS THAT ENTERTAINED US OVER THE PAST 10 YEARS". Entertainment Weekly. (1079/1080):74-84

External links

OutKast
André 3000 • Big Boi
Studio albums
Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik (1994) · ATLiens (1996) · Aquemini (1998) · Stankonia (2000) · Speakerboxxx/The Love Below (2003) · Idlewild (2006)
Other albums
Big Boi and Dre Present...OutKast (2001) · Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty (2010)
Singles
"Player's Ball" · "Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik" · "Git Up, Git Out" · "Elevators (Me & You)" · "ATLiens" · "Jazzy Belle" · "Rosa Parks" · "Skew It on the Bar-B" · "Da Art of Storytellin' (Pt. 1)" · "B.O.B." · "Ms. Jackson" · "So Fresh, So Clean" · "The Whole World"  · "Land of a Million Drums" · "Hey Ya!" · "The Way You Move" · "Roses" · "Ghetto Musick / Prototype" · "Mighty O" · "Morris Brown" · "Idlewild Blue (Don'tchu Worry 'Bout Me)" · "Hollywood Divorce" · "The Train"
Featured singles
"Gone Be Fine" · "International Players Anthem (I Choose You)"
Related articles
Discography · Organized Noize · Dungeon Family