Stankonia

Stankonia
Studio album by OutKast
Released	October 31, 2000
Recorded	1999–2000 Stankonia Recording (Atlanta, Georgia)
Genre	Hip hop, neo soul
Length	73:17
Label	LaFace/Arista
Producer	Earthtone III (OutKast) Organized Noize
Professional reviews
Allmusic [1] Robert Christgau (A)[2] Entertainment Weekly (A)[3] New York Times (favorable)[4] NME (9/10)[5] PopMatters (favorable)[6] Rolling Stone [7] Sputnikmusic [8] USA Today [9] Village Voice (favorable)[10]
OutKast chronology
Aquemini (1998) Stankonia (2000) Speakerboxxx/The Love Below (2003)
Alternate cover
Limited Edition cover
Singles from Stankonia
"B.O.B" Released: September 19, 2000 "Ms. Jackson" Released: January 2, 2001 "So Fresh, So Clean" Released: March 13, 2001

Stankonia is the fourth studio album by American hip hop duo OutKast, released October 31, 2000 on La Face Records. The album reached number 2 on the Billboard 200 chart , selling over 530,000 copies the first week of its release. Stankonia received universal acclaim from music critics, based on an aggregate score of 95/100 from Metacritic.^[11] The album received rave reviews from publications such as USA Today and the Los Angeles Times.^[9][12] It was also voted as the best album of the year in The Village Voice Pazz & Jop critics' poll.

In 2003, the album was ranked number 359 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. In 2006, Time magazine named Stankonia as one of the 100 best albums of all time.^[13] In 2009, Pitchfork Media ranked it number 13 on its list of the top 200 albums of the 2000s.^[14]

The limited edition artwork features a computer-generated image of a subset of the Mandelbrot set, a fractal.

Music

Stank, a commonly used word on the album, is derived from a southern U.S. pronunciation of stink, the original meaning of the word funk. George Clinton applied the term stank to the more carnal, hedonistic things in life, including funk music. "Stankonia" is the name of a fictional land at "the centre of the earth, seven light years below sea level", which is "the place from which all 'funky thangs' come", according to the album's opening lyrics. The lyrical content is divided between verses from Big Boi and André 3000. The artists describe themselves as "a player and a poet", respectively, and this is reflected in the lyrics; Big Boi tends to deal with standard gangsta fare (such as guns, hoes, and pimping on songs such as "Snappin & Trappin" and "We Luv Deez Hoez") while André 3000 talks about other elements of "stanking", using metaphors about elephants, ski slopes, and the four humours.

Part of the reason for Stankonia's acclaim and popularity was the diversity of its musical influences, which led to comparisons to Prince. It incorporates many musical genres to create a unique-sounding whole. For example, the album opens with Indian tablas and harmonium, then launching into a heavy metal-style electric guitar riff on "Gasoline Dreams" before turning to slick P-funk on the second song (fourth track overall) "So Fresh, So Clean". The album also incorporates influences from gospel, ("Toilet Tisha"), samba ("Humble Mumble") and drum and bass ("B.O.B."). This stylistic diversity was tied together by the pseudo-psychedelic production, emphasizing trippy synthesizers, spacey sound effects, techno-tinged percussion, and weird 70s-style psychedelic funk, updated in a more contemporary hip-hop context. The album's cover is an homage to Sly & the Family Stone's There's a Riot Goin' On.^{[citation needed]}

Critical reception

Robert Christgau of The Village Voice gave it an A rating and described Stankonia as "comic and expansive P-Funk".^[2] Allmusic gave the album 5 out of 5 stars and wrote "given the variety of moods, it helps that the album is broken up by brief, usually humorous interludes, which serve as a sort of reset button. It takes a few listens to pull everything together, but given the immense scope, it's striking how few weak tracks there are".^[1] Entertainment Weekly's Ken Tucker wrote "Stankonia reeks of artful ambition rendered with impeccable skill" and gave the album an A rating.^[3] Stankonia has a 95 score on Metacritic, indicating universal acclaim.^[11]

Track listing

All tracks are produced by Earthtone III, a production team consisting of OutKast and David "Mr. DJ" Sheats, except for "So Fresh, So Clean", "Spaghetti Junction", and "We Luv Deez Hoez", which are produced by Organized Noize.

1. "Intro" - 1:09
2. "Gasoline Dreams" (featuring Khujo Goodie of Goodie Mob) - 3:34
3. "I'm Cool" (Interlude) - 0:42
4. "So Fresh, So Clean" - 4:00
   • Samples "Before the Night is Over" by Joe Simon
5. "Ms. Jackson" - 4:30
   • Samples "Strawberry Letter #23" by The Brothers Johnson
6. "Snappin' & Trappin'" (featuring Killer Mike & J-Sweet) - 4:19
7. "D.F." (Interlude) - 0:27
8. "Spaghetti Junction" - 3:57
9. "Kim & Cookie" (Interlude) - 1:12
10. "I'll Call Before I Come" (featuring Gangsta Boo & Eco) - 4:18
11. "B.O.B." - 5:04
12. "Xplosion" (featuring B-Real) - 4:08
13. "Good Hair" (Interlude) - 0:14
14. "We Luv Deez Hoez" (featuring BackBone & Big Gipp of Goodie Mob) - 4:10
    • Samples "Worldwide" by Allen Toussaint
15. "Humble Mumble" (featuring Erykah Badu) - 4:50
16. "Drinkin' Again (Interlude)" - 0:24
17. "?" - 1:29
18. "Red Velvet" - 3:52
19. "Cruisin' in the ATL" (Interlude) - 0:19
20. "Gangsta Shit" (featuring Slimm Calhoun, C-Bone & T-Mo of Goodie Mob) (Produced by Carl Mo for Earthtone III) - 4:41
21. "Toilet Tisha" - 4:24
22. "Slum Beautiful" (featuring Cee-Lo of Goodie Mob) - 4:07
23. "Pre-Nump (Interlude)" - 0:27
24. "Stankonia (Stanklove)" (featuring Big Rube & Sleepy Brown) - 6:51

Chart history

Album

Singles

Personnel

References

External links

• Stankonia at Discogs
• Stankonia at Metacritic
• Playing God: Stankonia at Stylus Magazine
• Album Review at Yahoo! Music