I think the naughties (noughties! - ED) was where I began to feel really old and that music was finally leaving me behind what with rap and hip hop and house and stuff I didn't get and finally realised I HAD turned into my dad, 'one note songs' and 'what are they singing about'? 'why can't I hear the words', 'what IS that noise'!? etc etc . . . . . but occasionally something would spark my eardrobes (thank you Sir Stanley Unwin) and make me sit up and take notice . . .it still happens now with Lily Allen, Dua Lipa, Rag N Bone Man, Florence and the Machine, Ed Sheeran [backlash notwithstanding I think the boy's a genius!] Amy Wadge, heck I even liked Gorgon City with JP Cooper on Sunday Brunch yesterday. But broadly I feel left behind . . . . . . 

This made me sit up and Andre 'Ice Cool' 3000 is very clever and apart from being cast to play Jimi in a biopic he was able to turn apple green clothing fashionable again! 
What with Ceelo Green and I think I know what he was aiming at but getting Norah Jones and Rosario Dawson on the same album I think I REALLY know what he was up to! Clever guy! 

OUTKAST!


I loved this . . . . . . . the video is a work of genius!

On this day in music history: September 23, 2003 - “Speakerboxxx/The Love Below”, the fifth album by Outkast is released. Produced by André 3000, Big Boi, Carl Mo, Mr. DJ, Cutmaster Swiff and Dojo5, it is recorded at Stankonia Studios in Atlanta, GA and Larrabee Studios in Los Angeles, CA from September 2001 - September 2003. Following the huge critical and commercial success of their previous album “Stankonia” released in 2000, the Atlanta based rap duo take a year long hiatus before reconvening to work on their fifth release. Recorded over a two year period, the 2 CD/4 LP set is technically two separate albums by Big Boi and André 3000 packaged together under the Outkast name. Musically diverse and eclectic throughout, it features a number of guest artists including Jay-Z, Cee-Lo Green, Norah Jones, Sleepy Brown, Kelis, The Goodie Mob, Li'l Jon, Ludacris, and Rosario Dawson. The album is launched using the unique marketing approach of promoting not one, but two singles simultaneously. The tracks “Hey Ya” (#1 Pop, #9 R&B) and “The Way You Move” (#1 Pop, #2 R&B) are promoted as a double A-sided single. It receives major critical and commercial acclaim upon its release, spinning off five singles including (the aforementioned two) “Roses” (#9 Pop, #12 R&B) and “Ghetto Musick” (#93 R&B). The album also wins the duo three Grammy Awards including Album Of The Year (becoming only the second rap album in history to do so), and Best Rap Album in 2004. “Speakerboxxx/The Love Below” spends five weeks (non-consecutive) at number one on the Billboard Top 200, one week at number one on the R&B album chart, and is certified 11x Platinum in the US by the RIAA, earning a Diamond Certification.

with thanks to Jeff Harris' wonderful blog Behind The Grooves