Idlewild
Outkast
LaFace Records
cd Outkast fans worried about breakup rumors will be happy to see Andre “3000” Benjamin and Antwan “Big Boi” back together on Idlewild—their first truly collaborative effort since 2000’s Stankonia. However, only people who really, really like Outkast should actually part with their hard-earned cash for this one. Dre and Big Boi may still be partners, but this, their sixth release, is definitely their least inspired effort to date.
Like their film of the same name, Idlewild is a tribute to the music and style of the 1930s, retouched with a hip-hop flair. Simply mashing disparate styles together, however, does not an artist make. When Outkast blew up out of Atlanta in the late 1990s with their 1998 masterpiece, Aquemini, the group proved that hip-hop with a pop chorus didn’t have to suck. Subsequent albums like Stankonia and Speakerboxx/The Love Below (which was really more of a dual solo effort than an Outkast album proper) provided moments of brilliance, but along the way Andre 3000 apparently started to fancy himself the heir to Prince. Someone should really tell him that just because a rapper writes so-so pop songs and wears neon pants, that doesn’t make him a genius.
On earlier albums Outkast managed to cook up quirky pop hooks that worked because their tumbling, insightful rhymes were so good. On Idlewild, though, Andre 3000’s raps sound exactly as whack as you’d expect from a wanna-be model—and from Big Boi we get lazy singsong refrains like “I don’t want no girlfriend, just wanna get into you.” Apparently Outkast wrote the album while also working on the film, which may explain why it sounds phoned-in.
Unfortunately, Andre 3000 says he loves acting, and he’s touting an upcoming clothing line—an indication he isn’t going to be sewing the ass back into his trousers anytime soon. And poor Big Boi seems to have no choice but to play along. As a film, Idlewild may prove that rappers can act, but the accompanying album shows why actors definitely shouldn’t rap.—John Borgmeyer