Outkast: The Idlewild Era

[ItGirl]

Haven't heard a song on the radio but I really like this CD.

[marcjm]

Morris Brown and Mighty O are the singles. I've heard them on Urban stations here in Chicago. Judging by the fact that it's Outkast and those 2 singles, I think the CD will be good.

[SHOOTER]

Actually, "Morris Brown" and "Idlewild Blue" are the 2 singles. "Mighty O" was just a buzz cut.

[marcjm]

Well, excuse me. I didn't know that.

[SHOOTER]

lol. check ur PMs.

[marcjm]

What is a PM?

[SHOOTER]

Personal/Private Messages

[spooky21]

Given the weak buzz on this, i wonder if it will be seen as a failure coming after their diamond selling dual disk.

I doubt this will even pass 2MM.

[SHOOTER]

People are quick to forget this is more of a soundtrack for Idlewild than a bona fide new album from OutKast.

[reception]

Sharp-dressed rapper-actors André Benjamin and Big Boi (of the group OutKast) make a grand entrance - in vintage hot wheels! - at the New York City premiere of their movie musical Idlewild on Monday.

[marcjm]

They are crazy! I'm not feeling the reviews of the CD, and it's not looking good for them at this point.

[Tabitha]

When they were on 106 and Park, they came on one of those cars and they had no idea about anything about it!

"What car is that you rode in?"
"We don't know... it's from the Idlewild era."
"When was that?"
"We think around the 30s and 40s."

They need to lie or something, but then again BET will call you out 9/10 times.

I think this album will not be that good, haven't heard any buzz and the singles do not garner my attention. Morris Brown kind of grew on me, but I will not buy the album for it.

[Damage]

The buzz has actually been pretty big. But unfortunately, I'm not feeling this cd at all. it's just incredibly disjointed. dunno what's going on.

[A Thug Named Slickback]

Hmmm... Outkast is my favorite rap act ever, and yet somehow I don't even think I'm gonna bother picking this CD up. I think this will be their Glitter.

[Rob64]

Ugh. I have totally lost interest in Outkast. "Speakerboxx/The love below" were HORRIBLE. "Idlewild" is just retarded. What happened to them? Ugh

[Damage]

speakerboxx/love below was the ish! that thing is like diamond too!

i did think the norah jones thing was wack as hell. but there are too many hot tracks on those CD's. Reset was my jam for the longest.

[GiggaWho]

alex81979 said:

The buzz has actually been pretty big.  But unfortunately, I'm not feeling this cd at all.  it's just incredibly disjointed.  dunno what's going on.

That's how I feel about it too. I like a few tracks here and there, but it just doesn't work to have Andre and Big Boi doing separate things on the same disk. The other big OutKast fan at work just sent me an email this morning saying how disappointed he is in it. So I guess that sentiment is going around.

[siggy2]

giggawho said:

alex81979 said:

The buzz has actually been pretty big.  But unfortunately, I'm not feeling this cd at all.  it's just incredibly disjointed.  dunno what's going on.

That's how I feel about it too. I like a few tracks here and there, but it just doesn't work to have Andre and Big Boi doing separate things on the same disk. The other big OutKast fan at work just sent me an email this morning saying how disappointed he is in it. So I guess that sentiment is going around.

It actually takes a minute to sink in. I didn't like it at all at first but I listened again and think it's amazing. I also noticed that I can't just put on one song. I have to listen to the whole CD to really understand and feel it.

Don't write it off just yet!

[reception]

Aug 24, 3:19 PM EDT
OutKast Takes Creative Risk With Movie

NEW YORK (AP) -- OutKast has long been considered a groundbreaking force, their funkadelic sound, rapid-fire rhyming and decidedly Southern flair breathing excitement into a repetitious music world and making them one of the most popular acts in the world.

So Andre "3000" Benjamin and Antwan "Big Boi" Patton should have had little difficulty segueing into the world of film, especially considering the success of rappers in Hollywood.

Right?

That's what Big Boi and Andre thought. But Hollywood's initial response was lukewarm, and it would be almost a decade before they finally got an OutKast film - this week's "Idlewild" - on movie screens.

"Being young and naive, we didn't know what it took to make a movie," admits Big Boi.

Maybe it's because they weren't gangsta rappers looking to play a version of themselves in a gritty shoot-em-up. Or because the kind of film they were looking to make - a musical - went out of style decades ago.

Or maybe producers worried the eclectic vibe that made OutKast so popular in the music world - Andre's wig-wearing, out-there persona and Big Boi's cool, laid-back style - wouldn't translate on film.

One humbling moment came after the pair, aided by video director Bryan Barber, wrote a full musical script based on their 1998 disc, "Aquemini." A major studio apparently had interest in it - but with a catch.

"At the last minute, they was like, 'Yeah, we wanna buy it, but we don't want y'all to be acting in it,'" recalls Andre. "I think they pulled up Missy (Elliott) and Busta Rhymes' names, because I guess they were the hottest thing going at that time."

Fast forward almost a decade, and few acts are as hot as OutKast. Their last album, 2003's double-disc "Speakerboxxx/The Love Below," sold more than 10 million copies in the United States, won them an album of the year Grammy and mountains of critical praise.

And, perhaps more importantly, it finally launched their joint movie career with "Idlewild," a 1930s Prohibition-era musical.

"I don't know who except OutKast could have pulled this off," says Barber, who co-wrote and directed the film.

The ambitious, high-stepping musical/romance/drama not only features the scatting of old-time jazz but today's rap. It started off simply as video treatments for two intended singles off the "Speakerboxxx/The Love Below" album.

Though slightly fuzzy, Andre knew his vision was to play a mortician in love with a doomed girl, while Big Boi envisioned a place called church - where you went to worship the lords of dance, women and wild times instead of a higher power.

Though both have recently acted in films individually (Andre in films like "Four Brothers" and "Be Cool," Big Boi in "ATL"), they had never done a project together.

The idea grew from video treatments to a short independent film to an HBO-straight-to-TV picture. But Andre and Big Boi still dreamed of more.

"When the movie started out, at first it was a million dollar picture," Big Boi says. "And after we started shooting, they started believing in us more."

"We knew if the movie was good enough, they'd release it to theater, so our whole goal was to make the movie good enough," says Andre with a smile. "We were going to try and push it further."

It eventually ballooned into an estimated $35 million flick co-starring veteran actors like Ben Vereen, Cicely Tyson, Ving Rhames and Oscar-nominee Terrence Howard, along with musicians Macy Gray and Patti LaBelle.

But Big Boi and Andre are the stars studio execs hope will bring in the fans. Choosing such a fantastical project - a musical from a bygone era - is a definite risk. Barber noted that a more conventional route would have been some kind of buddy flick, "(but) I wanted to do something outside the box. ... That is everything that OutKast is. I think the audience is really looking for refreshing material."

Big Boi and Andre are taking the same approach with the soundtrack, which mixes big-band stompers with booming rap. Though OutKast has always challenged its listeners - "Speakerboxxx/The Love Below" was essentially two solo discs, and Andre's was mainly singing - there is more risk this time around. The first single, "Mighty O," hasn't set charts on fire, and the album is being released as the industry overall continues a downward spiral.

Andre said the success of the last album has freed him from worrying about what's anticipated for "Idlewild."

"We've been doing it for 11 years, and we've won Grammys and we've had fans from on the street level to pop level ... we've kind of done it," Andre says.

Yet at the same time, he admits occasional worries that the OutKast's trademark adventurous sound may not appeal to the masses as much as it used to.

"I just had an idea for a song called `Mid-Rap Crisis,' because I do feel like that," he chuckles. "Our music don't sound like what's going on."

"We have our own style and that is OutKastStonia," laughs Big Boi.

That unique style is hatched by increasingly separate partners. The pair typically records separately and even for this interview, spoke separately (travel commitments forced Big Boi to cancel a joint interview).

They share few scenes together in "Idlewild." People are so used to them working in parallel tandem that there was shock and surprise when the pair were featured rapping - together - on the same track, "Mighty O."

But both dismiss persistent rumors of a breakup, and seem bewildered that the talk refuses to die despite their denials.

"All them haters would love for us to break up ... sorry haters!" shouts Big Boi with a laugh. "We're not breaking up. We're still here, we've got a relationship that goes beyond music and film."

Like adult brothers, they have formed individual lives outside of their family unit. Both are fathers, and each has separate creative interests - Andre is developing a clothing line and has a Cartoon Network series set to debut this fall, along with his acting work. Big Boi is also focusing on acting, an upcoming solo record and his label, Purple Ribbon.

But OutKast is still their focus.

"We've had our battles, I mean, we've had times where I wanna just completely stop doing it, and he's still going, and he might not understand a certain decisions I've made," says Andre. "But at the end of the day, you have to remember that me and Big Boi, we were like homeboys, like brothers before we even wrote our first rap."

As for the next OutKast project, neither can say for sure when that will occur. But whatever shape it takes, they insist the musical and the personal duo of Big Boi and Andre will remain intact.

"We will always make music in some form. Even if, say, if Big Boi goes and does a solo album, I'm still producing on that album," insists Andre. "I think we will always do OutKast in some kind of way."

[Damage]

i'm looking forward to the movie - I'm going to try to catch it this weekend.

[siggy2]

I'm going catch the movie in about an hour. Can't wait!

[reception]

1. "Danity Kane," Danity Kane
2. "Back to Basics," Christina Aguilera
3. "Idlewild," Outkast
4. "Paris," Paris Hilton
5. "Ekolu Music," Ekolu
6. "Kamahiwa," Keali'i Reichel
7. "Alone in IZ World," Israel Kamakawiwo'ole
8. "Facing Future," Israel Kamakawiwo'ole
9. "PDC," The Pussycat Dolls
10. "The 50 Greatest Hawaiian Albums Ever, Vol. 2," various artists

Hawai'i source: Tower Records Honolulu (9/1/2006)

[Damage]

Buggface is ill. I still can't get into the whole CD, but that song is dope. The beat is ridiculous.

[zago]

this album is an incredible flop..but Outkast continue to be one of the best in rap/hip hop ambient

[reception]

1. "Danity Kane," Danity Kane
2. "Idlewild" soundtrack, Outkast
3. "Kamahiwa," Keali'i Reichel
4. "Ekolu Music," Ekolu
5. "Back to Basics," Christina Aguilera
6. "Best Thang Smokin'," Young Dro
7. "Modern Times," Bob Dylan
8. "4:21 ... The Day After," Method Man
9. "Facing Future," Israel Kamakawiwo'ole
10. "Blow The Whistle," Too Short

Hawai'i source: Tower Records Honolulu (9/8/2006)

[Damage]

hey reception - is the tower near you saying anything about closing ??

[Damage]

I love dre's verse on the remix of the gawd awful mess that is "walk it out" - it's fire. Fader magazine picked it up too, in their listmania.

"Walk it out like a Usher
If you say real talk, I probably won't trust ya
if you wanna go to war the gun's my pleasure
...even Jesus had 12 disciple's on the lever...trigger...whatever...pewoo!!!" lol

And the rest is fire too.

[damnnnitzzjohn]

I like the CD...well the only songs I listen to more than once was

Mighty O, Idlewild Blues, Morris Brown, and HOLLYWOOD DIVORCE! which i listened to the most ! LOVE itt

[marcjm]

Those are the stand-out tracks for me as well on Idlewild. I just wish the CD would've done better because it deserved to.

[damnnnitzzjohn]

^^^IT did