Released: 2000
André 3000 (Aka Benjamin) and Anton ‘Big Boi’ Patton were still a couple of years away from re-casting hip hop’s cans and cant’s when their fourth album Stankonia was released; twin solo projects under one banner, it’s successor Speakerboxx/The Love Below has since largely overshadowed the innovative and energetic way they’d first approached the new century.
Without one the other would never have existed and Stankonia pushed an envelope which the duo had never consciously wanted to be restricted by. This time they magpied far and wide, hijacking P-Funk (B.O.B), 64 bit George Clintonalia (Snappin & Trappin) and psychedelic wig outs (Slum Beautiful). Recorded in their own studio – formerly that of New Jack Swing pioneer Bobby Brown – it would also help to confirm the south’s emergence as a force in rap, much to some other’s disdain.
Miss Jackson was Stankonia‘s most orthodox track, in form a paternal apology told in rhyme intended for Benjamin’s ex Erykah Badu (Or more specifically her mother). As the pair to’d and fro’d against an understated kick drum and one finger synth line, the rest of the album’s mania was kept firmly at bay, the result an exercise in simplicity which would go on to earn it’s creators a Grammy award, before the future arrived just in time.
The Voice Of Unreason 