You could pick up on the mentality without even hearing a word if you could see their now-iconic album cover: in front of an American flag swapping black stripes for red ones, Big Boi stands to the left in a white tee that highlights his cross necklace looking for all the world like a man who ends but never starts fights while next to him Dre is topless with his hands reaching towards the camera with heavily lidded eyes.

When Andre sarcastically asks вЂњ DonвЂ™t everybody like the taste of apple pie?вЂќ and follows that up with the grounded rejoinder of вЂњWeвЂ™ll snap for your slice of life, IвЂ™m telling you why!вЂќ it puts the listener with OutKast right from the opening chorus, underdogs (despite worldwide acclaim) and looking beyond the conventional world to find a better, blacker, less buttoned-up future. After a brief intro, the album proper starts with вЂњGasoline DreamsвЂќ and wastes no time in excoriating America for every person of color thatвЂ™s been inside of its borders. Yet that rare failure just underscores the fact that OutKast risked the biscuit a lot more than their legions of inferior peers and more often than not walked away with the whole damn bakery. OutKast was interested in a polyglot of styles and not just one particular avenue, so you get things like вЂњSpaghetti JunctionвЂќ that featured a more Soulquarian or Rawkus Records style of backdrop just a few tracks away from things like вЂњWe Luv Deez Hoes,вЂќ which has aged as you can probably surmise. Likewise, album closer вЂњStankonia (Stanklove)вЂќ goes for nearly seven minutes of languorous and ethereal groove that barely features the participants you would expect. ItвЂ™s in multiple deep cuts that give the album its heft: you hear it in вЂњGangsta Shit,вЂќ where you hear the influence of His Purple Excellency all over the guitar riff augmenting the track and peaking in the chorus. As a result, the album teems with things other hip-hop wouldnвЂ™t or frankly couldnвЂ™t do. Stankonia may be fleshed out with some interludes, but besides the five-mic flow of the Cadillac enthusiasts thatвЂ™s probably the thing that makes this most resemble any of the other quadrillion hip-hop albums out there where it elevated into instant classic status was the fact that OutKast specifically avoided listening to hip-hop in the leadup to the album being created and drew from other world class iconoclasts like Prince, Jimi Hendrix, Chuck Berry and Little Richard. More important than listening vehicles or вЂњnewвЂќ music is the album itself, a masterwork that could arguably be called the first great hip hop album of the 21st century while featuring over an hour of Big Boi & Andre 3000 at the end of their zenith. And the more addicted audiophiles can probably guess whatвЂ™s next: yes, a reissue with some previously unreleased remixes and special limited vinyl will be dropping. The day before Halloween 2020-a phrase as redundant and suitable for mockery as вЂњATM machineвЂќ-will mark the 20th anniversary of OutkastвЂs Stankonia.

Outkast stankonia poster