Ten Songs for Different Valentine’s Days

Happy Valentime’s Day, everyone!  Unfortunately, this year is one when I couldn’t take advantage of the great offers for roses from the vendors on the street corners.  I didn’t buy a heart-shaped box of candy and I’m not headed out to dinner with a sweetie.  But there’s no reason not to celebrate love.  Love is an amazing thing and, in fact, I think we should all celebrate St. Valentine every day.  So here are ten great songs for a wide range of different Valentine’s Days.*

The love below (part 2)

I have a secret love that only my closest friends know.  I don’t think my parents know.  Very few colleagues know.  Most people would be very surprised to learn about it; some even shocked. Underneath the business attire, despite the fact that I’m a preacher’s kid, and even after 20+ years and two degrees in classical music, I can’t deny how much I LOVE Outkast.

In part 1 of this series, I broke down the highlights of ‘Kast’s debut Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik.  Part 2 is now long overdue.  Today I’ll be focusing on the incredible sophomore effort, ATLiens.

Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik was a unique and, I’d argue, better than average first effort.  But in the grand scheme of things, that album was just a talented 9th grader playing on the varsity team: it showed skill, promise and enthusiasm, but it was unproven.  ATLiens, on the other hand, which dropped in August 1996 (actually, on the other dope boy’s birthday.  Happy birthday, Versastylist.  You’ve already been helped), is all the proof you would need to trade as many prospects and future picks as it takes to move way up in the draft to take this future hall of famer.  This album proved what Andre and Big Boi were capable of: a huge learning curve over the previous 3 years and the potential to eclipse every other artist in the genre.

“If you don’t want to be challenged by your hip-hop, ATLiens is not the album for you; matter of fact OutKast is not the group for you. They refuse to be conventional in a world of formulaic mediocrity, which may make them harder to grasp but ultimately makes them that much better to listen to.”

Steve ‘Flash’ Juon

The love below (part 1)

I have a secret love that only my closest friends know.  I don’t think my parents know.  Very few colleagues know.  Most people would be very surprised to learn about it; some even shocked. Underneath the business attire, despite the fact that I’m a preacher’s kid, and even after 20+ years and two degrees in classical music, I can’t deny how much I LOVE Outkast.

Yes. I’m about to shout from the rooftops. I love Outkast, the trend setting, boundary pushing, multi Grammy® award-winning hip hop duo from the ATL.  Andre Benjamin, aka Andre 3000, and Antwan Patton, aka Big Boi, aka Daddy Fat Sax, aka General Patton.  I remember the first time I heard “Player’s Ball” (on a mix tape, I was 15) and buying my first ‘Kast album (ATLiens in 1998).  I remember taking the bus to buy Stankonia the day it came out in October 2000 and telling people how “B.O.B.” was different from anything I had heard before, never mind that they were singing about Shock and Awe three years before it actually happened.  (Some people think “B.O.B.” was the song of a generation; not quite true. That would come three years later.)  I was so excited to find out that I actually grew up in the SWATS that many subsequent screen names and email passwords included the five-letter acronym.