It's been a long time since Outkast took the hip-hop and pop worlds by storm with the double album Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. The Atlanta duo was able to do something that few artists ever accomplish: They recorded a serious album that was wildly inventive, pushed the boundaries of the form in which they worked and did so in a way that was wildly popular. "Hey Ya!" and "The Way You Move" were mega hits. "Hey Ya!" might have been one of the greatest so-called crossover singles of the last decade (perhaps second only to Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy").
Maybe 2003 doesn't seem that long ago, but popular music can experience what seems like generational turnover every six to 12 months. And despite the impermanence of the contemporary pop/hip hop record, the legacy of Speakerboxxx/The Love Below feels as enduring as any of other record of the time. It is in that album's long shadow that Big Boi, the "grounded" half of Outkast, released his solo album Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty a few weeks ago to nearly universal acclaim.
