In the decade since beginning their singular journey to beyond the boundaries of what hip hop could deliver, Antwan 'Big Boi' Patton and Andre 'Dre 3000' Benjamin have seemed inseparable, counterbalancing parts of the same unified whole. But here they are, a double CD set essentially splitting the duo down the middle, delivering a disc-length missive apiece from the musical worlds each now seem to separately inhabit.
You have to deal in over-simplifications if you want to discuss this amazing record in less than a book-length format. So think of 'Speakerboxxx' as 'Stankonia' Part 2, and 'The Love Below' as Dre does Prince. But there's much more to 'The Love Below' than Dre's ambitions beyond hip hop, and much more to 'Speakerboxxx' than Big's attempts to make hip hop encompass more than it already does.
The sticker that appeared on the cover of their third album, 'Aquemini', hailed "the poet" and "the playa". Conventional wisdom has always had it that bohemian, loud-dressing Dre is the former, and Big Boi, with his penchant for pole dance clubs and pit bull breeding is the latter. 'Speakerboxxx / The Love Below' turns this theory on its head. Dre deals in relationships, sex and emotions, while Big Boi gets political and personal. The poet pens lines like: "I don't want to move too fast / but can't resist your sexy ass / Just spread, spread for me," while the playa blasts: "I refuse to sit in the backseat and get handled / Like I do nothing all day but sit around and watch the Cartoon Channel."
You can put these discs on random select and, while you'll often be able to tell whose disc a track comes from, they're still inseparable when it comes to quality. Some highlights: 'The Way You Move', from 'Speakerboxxx', is hilarious, a rap salsa with lascivious verses and syrupy choruses. 'Hey Ya', from 'The Love Below', is an almost Beatlesesque strumalong, framing a lyric of unapologetic lust. 'Ghettomusick', one of four tracks where the pair worked together, is a riot of steel-hard disco and mental sampled soul drop-outs. 'Love Hater' (Dre) is a cocktail lounge jazz excursion, 'Church' (Big) a gospel-laden affirmation of faith in a higher power.
Splitting their creativity apart has, in fact, revealed Dre and Big to have their own internal, self-contained checks and balances. They are both men capable, it would appear, of doing anything in the world of music they could possibly think of trying. Their records sound very different, but they're both astounding. And they're both still out there, on that journey to the limits of what you, me, or they think could happen next. Praise be.
