B.o.B Reviews OutKast’s ‘Speakerboxxx/The Love Below’– XXL Issue 150
Artist: OutKast
Reviewer: B.o.B
Rating: XXL
Anniversary: 10-year
Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared in the September 2013 issue of XXL Magazine.
I was like 14 or 15 when that album came out, and I used to listen to that every day and ride the bus with my duffel bags full of snacks and shit to sell. I'd bump that album religiously! I ain't have no iPod, I just used to have a little MP3 player, and I would have the same songs on there.
I'd bump The Love Below if I roll one up, but if I was tryna get ready in the morning, I'd bump Speakerboxxx. I first got wind of it coming out when I heard "Hey Ya," and for me as an OutKast fan when I heard it, it was outside the box. But it was so jamming. I went to school in the hood, and all the kids was fuckin' with it. So it showed me that I could be different and the hood still fuck with it. I don't have to have a song like everything else. And it was at a crucial point of my life 'cause that's when I sold my first beat—that was the first, legit music business transaction that happened.
It definitely took me by surprise. I think that's what made it so dope because they're one of those groups where you're always surprised. Even though you wasn't expecting it, you wanted that. They always pull your mind outside the box, and they did it again with that one.
[My favorite songs] are probably "Hey Ya," "Roses", "The Rooster" and the song Big did with Jay Z and Killer mIke on Speakerboxxx, "Flip Flop Rock." --@B.o.B (as told to Emmanuel C.M., @ECM_LP)
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