Sunday Night Sample - Outkast - B.O.B. BONUS - Stankonia Turned 20 Years Old

With football season in full swing these Sunday Night Sample blogs have been getting lost in the fray. Not a big deal usually. But in the case of Outkast, their album Stankonia's 20th birthday, and "B.O.B." I felt this deserved a different level of respect. 

So I waited until Monday to post the Sunday Night Sample. 

Let's start off with the featured song, and then get to Stankonia.

B.O.B. (Bombs Over Baghdad)

First off, have there ever been better drums in a hip hop song? I say no. 

If this song doesn't get you up out of your seat and moving, ready to run wind sprints through all the walls in your house then you better check your pulse because you're probably dead. 

Somehow when this song hit radio it didn't have much of an impact. Back in 2000, when the song was released, the hook was in reference to the Gulf War. But in 2003 at the beginning of the Iraq War the songs acronym, "Bombs Over Bahgdad", took on an unintended meaning. The song was more of a commentary on life in the ghetto, not war in Iraq. But that's how it was inadvertently interpreted and over time it became a pro-military, pro Iraq War anthem. 

As Andre 3000 told Rolling Stone that year, 

""The U.S. was trying to beat around the bush," Andre 3000 told Rolling Stone of the inspiration behind's the song's hook. "We was trying to scare them by bombing the outskirts … If you're going to do anything at all, do it. If you gonna push it, push it." As chanted in the bridge, "B.O.B." brought about an "electric revival" in hip-hop, and the song would bolster a "Stankadelic" movement – subsequently increasing the duo's following.

The songs hook featured the Morris Brown College Gospel Choir. 

Outkast's intention on the hook, 

Don’t pull the thang out, unless you plan to bang
Bombs over Baghdad!
Yeah, don’t even bang unless you plan to hit something
Bombs over Baghdad!

was to stress that fellow artists weren't making music that had soul. That everything had a short shelf life, was quickly irrelevant, and had zero impact.

As Big Boi would tell the LA Times - 

“There were lots of people making music, but there was nothing real about it, we were like saying, make music that has something to say or just get out of the way.”

"Everybody's been doing music like they all have the same formula—e=mc2. They get a beat, an MC, somebody to sing the hook, and go platinum. Where's music going to go when everybody's trapped in this same repetitious flow?"

“We make a record and then it is up to people to take what they want from it,” said Big Boi in 2003. “We explain a song when people ask, but we can’t control how they feel about it. In our case, fans know where we stand pretty much. I talk to them in the street all the time. I really think Bush should have gone through the United Nations before going over there. But once the fighting starts, everything changes."

“You have guys over there with families here, and you have to support the troops and pray for them. So, if the song helps them keep their spirits up, I don’t have a problem with that,” he added.

Production-wise, the song's tempo is in double time, and is comprised of drum and bass rhythms, guitars, organs, and the Morris College Gosper Choir vocals. 

The song actually samples a James Brown BANGER

SAMPLE-  JAMES BROWN - GET ON THE GOOD FOOT

Andre samples some of James Brown's vocals on the song. Other than that it's a totally original production care of Big Boi and Mr. Dj. 

The funkadelic guitar synths in the song, and Andre's outfit, and bedroom decorations in the video are an ode to his idol, Jimmy Hendrix.

Somehow this song only reached #69 on the U.S. Charts which is mind-boggling. Despite that, it' been certified 4 times platinum, and dubbed one of the greatest songs of the 2000s by Rolling Stone.

As part of the song, and album's 20th Birthday, it got a remix from Rage Against The Machine's Zach de la Rocha -

The Rage Against The Machine frontman reworked the single some two decades ago, with his rendition previously only released on radio. Now, with the remix set to appear on Stankonia’s anniversary release alongside other rare material, the duo have made it available for all to hear on streaming platforms – and it was absolutely worth the wait.

“Zack added an extra layer of grunge to a masterpiece,” Big Boi tells Rolling Stone, while Andre 3000 adds, “I’m a fan of the Rage sound so it was an honour to have them involved in a remix.”

Now for Stankonia

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Billboard - Near the end of a Billboard news piece from Oct. 28, 2000 about OutKast's then-current single "Ms. Jackson" debuting on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart thanks to strong airplay ahead of Stankonia's Oct. 31 release, there's a revealing line: "[OutKast] is most famous, however, for its controversial track 'Rosa Parks,' which climbed to No. 19 on the [aforementioned chart] before legalities raised by the woman for whom the song was named forced the single to stop being played at radio."

As we celebrate the stone-cold classic's 20th anniversary this weekend, it's a curious sentence to come across with historical perspective: these days, the legal fight between the Civil Rights pioneer and the duo of Big Boi and André 3000 is more a piece of OutKast trivia than a defining biographical incident for the duo – certainly not what they're "most famous" for by a long shot.

Which isn't to say the 2000 article was wrong, per se; if anything, it speaks to the sea change in popular success OutKast would enjoy over the next decade, fueled in large part by the critically lauded commercial breakthrough that was their fourth album, Stankonia, a 73-minute odyssey that catapulted their careers to the next level. Hitting No. 2 on the Billboard 200, the album remained on the chart for 46 weeks and earned OutKast two Grammys: best rap album and best rap performance by a duo or group for "Ms. Jackson." Today, it's regularly cited as one of the greatest albums of all time.

It was hardly an overnight success story, though. The duo had been steadily increasing its profile since the release of its 1994 debut Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, with follow-up LPs ATLiens (1996) and Aquemini (1998) enjoying critical acclaim and hitting No. 2 on the Billboard 200. But beyond the headlines the Rosa Parks lawsuit garnered, and the No. 12 peak of "Elevators (Me & You)" on the Hot 100, the duo's pop culture crossover was limited. Yes, they were Southern rap stars after Aquemini, but with Stankonia, OutKast was suddenly thrust into the same pop cultural conversation that included Janet Jackson, *NSYNC and Britney Spears.

Stankonia's release was really one of those "had to be there" moments. If you knew good music, you knew you were hearing greatness- something that was special, and would stand the test of time. Yet it felt like you were taking crazy pills because an awful lot of people passed on it upon it's release. 

"B.O.B.", despite being a masterpiece wasn't well received at the time (as documented above). So as the first single off the album, unacquainted listeners (see mainstream) felt that was an appetizer for what the rest of the album would be. 

Everything changed when "Ms. Jackson" was released as the follow-up single.

With its Brothers Johnson sample (their 1977 cover of Shuggie Otis' "Strawberry Letter 23") , laid-back groove, touching sincerity and impish playfulness ("forever-ever?"), "Ms. Jackson" became an early '00s radio staple, topping the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart in December and crowning the Hot 100 for one week in February 2001.

In the Nov. 18, 2000-dated issue (after Stankonia's release but before "Ms. Jackson" topped the Hot 100), Billboard reviewed the single, focusing on the lyrical content and social implications. "Several musicians have recently addressed the concept (and complications) of having children out of wedlock… 'Ms. Jackson' tackles the issue with sincerity over a synthed-out drum track," reads the review. "The message-oriented single has caught fire across the country at radio." (The child in question, incidentally, is the son of Erykah Badu and André 3000, who would have been a toddler when "Jackson" hit the airwaves.) Very much a product of the era, parts of the review haven't aged terribly well: the phrase "children out of wedlock" reads outdated; hell, even referring to two unmarried people having a child as an "issue" to be "tackle[d]" seems a bit quaint these days.

One of the greatest songs of all time. A song that will play on "oldies" stations in 2050 that we will be telling our grandkids about (if we make that far).

When this song hit, it hit like an atom bomb. 

Outkast was suddenly a mainstream hit and household name. It hit #1 on the Billboard charts which was an incredible feat for a hip hop song twenty years ago. 

Aside from its sonic appeal, it just sounded SO good, the song's catchy flow, hook, and lyrics resonated with people from all walks of life. 

As Andre 3000 famously admitted, he wrote the song about his relationship with the mother of his child, Erykah Badu, and his relationship with her mother. Badu would go on to say about the song - 

"It hit kind of a sore spot. I didn't wanna hear that, especially when I heard Big Boi's verse. When I heard André's verse, I felt very good because his verse was really, really inspiring. He just said how he felt and it was his honest feelings and I always respected that and listened to what he felt and appreciated it." Badu also noted that her mother loved the song, saying, "Baby, she bought herself a 'Ms. Jackson' license plate. She had the mug, she had the ink pen, she had the headband, everything."

The song resonated to so many people because of its central theme involving the problems that break-ups, separation, and divorce carry with them. And the stress and pressure that a loved one's mother can add to the relationship. 

After Ms. Jackson and the success it carried, Outkast had a tall feat to live up to following it up with a third single. They went with "So Fresh and So Clean". 

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Not their greatest song ever but definitely worthy of honorable mention. It featured Sleepy Brown on it's hook and samples from Joe Simon's "Before the Night Is Over" and Funkadelic's "I'll Stay". It peaked at #30 on the Billboard charts.

What's insane to think when you consider the body of work that Stankonia is, is that Big Boi and Andre were only 25 years old when they made it.  They parlayed their success from ATLiens into purchasing a recording studio in downtown Atlanta out of foreclosure that the bank had seized from Bobby Brown. They renamed it "Stankonia" and that is where this albums name derived. They had been grinding their asses off and had a notable level of acclaim before it, but Ms. Jackson launched them into the stratosphere. Their follow up album, Speakerboxxx/Love Below would put them on an entirely other level and solidify them as one of the greatest musical acts of all time. But one can argue they would never have been pushed to the level creatively that they were, nor held to the standards critically they were, had it not been for Stankonia.

The world is in dire dire need of an Outkast reunion album. The chances are slim, as Big Boi has seemed to go on with his solo career and Andre continues to be a musical gypsy - popping up from time to time on random strangers social media playing instruments with street performers or doing guest features on other artists songs. They both seem happy, and never had a public falling out, but the public needs them back together, and producing music together now more than ever.