Songoftheday 10/30/24 - Caroline all the guys would say she's mighty fine, but mighty fine only got you somewhere half the time...
"Roses" - Outkast
from the album Speakerboxx/The Love Below (2003)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #9 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 13
Weeks in the Top-40: 13
Today's song comes from the Atlanta hip-hop duo Outkast, whose Grammy-winning double-disc opus Speakerboxx/The Love Below had already spun off a double-song single which featured both members from their respective discs, Big Boi's "The Way You Move" and Andre3000's "Hey Ya!". Both songs had went to #1 in 2003. Another track from Andre's Love Below record, "Prototype", had its own music video and got enough airplay on urban radio to place at #63 on Billboard's R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart, and peaked at #15 in the Scandinavian country of Finland. They also lent a hand to singer Sleepy Brown (who sang on "The Way You Move"), appearing on his top-40 hit "I Can't Wait".
For the next "official" single from Outkast, they also went back to The Love Below for "Roses". Both Big Boi and Andre are on the song (the only time on the disc), and both wrote the track with Matt Boykin. The lyrics have them telling off a woman who is full of herself, with the title and chorus riffing on the wordplay of "I know you'd like to think that you're shit don't stink, but lean a little closer and roses smell like poo-poo-poo" (the only valid adult iteration of "poo-poo"). I'm not sure who the "Mars girls" Andre says the guys are into, but they aren't it. Big Boi fast-roasts the woman, including the topical "no go on the raw sex, my AIDS test is flawless" and "I wanna see your support bra, not support you". But compares to the guns and hoes fare of the rap culture of the time this was much more palatable, and was cleaned up enough for radio to come back on board. The music video spoofs totally un-hip-hop musical references as Grease and West Side Story, with Katt Williams appropriately winning at the end...
"Roses" returned Outkast to the top ten on Billboard's Hot 100 (and the top-40 for the last time) in June of 2004, while peaking at #12 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart and #5 on their Rap Songs list. On the radio, the song rose to #4 on the Mainstream Top-40 Airplay chart, #11 on the Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay list, and #7 on the dance/R&B-oriented Rhythmic format. Internationally, the single reached the top ten in Australia (#2), the United Kingdom (#4), Canada (#5 Airplay), New Zealand (#5), Ireland (#6), and Norway (#9), and made the top-40 in Denmark (#15), Austria (#18), Germany (#21), and the Netherlands (#25).
After some delays, Andre3000 and Big Boi would return in 2006 with an ambitious project that would include a film, Idlewild, as well as a "companion" album that contained some (but not all) of the songs from the film as well as other non-movie tracks. the wildly experimental "Mighty O", which Big Boi and Andre3000 performed on, came in at a disappointing #77 on the Hot 100, while peaking at #30 on the R&B Singles chart. It was nominated for a Grammy for Best Duo/Group Rap Performance, losing to Chamillionaire and Krayzie Bone's "Ridin'". That was followed by Big Boi's "Morris Brown" featuring Scar and Sleepy Brown, which went to #95 on the Hot 100 but didn't even dent the R&B chart. The same was with Andre3000's rockabilly "Idlewild Blue (Don'tchu Worry 'Bout Me)" which slipped in the Hot 100 for a sole week at #100. This also earned a Grammy nom for Best Urban/Alternative Performance, which went (deservedly) to Gnarls Barkley for "Crazy". The album topped the R&B Albums chart and came in at #2 on the Billboard 200 chart, but "only" sold about a million copies, compared to 6.5 million for Speakerboxx/The Love Below.
The pair went their separate ways after Idlewild, with Big Boi releasing his first solo album Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son Of Chico Dusty in 2010, which went to #3 on the Billboard 200. The big single from the record and his biggest solo-billed lead success, "Shutterbug" with singer Cutty, went to #60 on Billboard's R&B Singles chart and "bubbled under" the Hot 100 at #120. The single was more successful in Britain, where it peaked at #13. He released three more solo albums since that made the top-40 on the Billboard 200, most recently Boomiverse in 2017. He's appeared on a string of feature spots on hits, including one, "Girlfight" with singer Brooke Valentine, that will bring him back to this series.
Meanwhile, Andre3000 had been keeping a lower profile, only putting out a soundtrack to a children's program, Class Of 3000, in 2007. He will also return to the series as a feature on John Legend's "Green Light" which made the top-40 in 2008. Finally, in 2023, Andre stunned the world with a mostly flute-jazz record, New Blue Sun, which went to #34 on the Billboard 200 and #1 on the New Age Albums chart. A cut from the record, the 12-minute-long "I Swear, I Really Wanted to Make a 'Rap' Album but This Is Literally the Way the Wind Blew Me This Time", claimed the record for longest song title to reach the Hot 100 when it entered at #90. (It also hit #10 in New Zealand.)
Big Boi and Andre3000 periodically reunite for live performances.
(8/10)
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The pair reunited in 2014 for the Roskilde Festival...
And finally, their epic return at the BET Awards in 2023....
Up tomorrow: Dancehall artist is watching the Big Lebowski, perhaps....
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