Speakerboxxx / The Love Below by Outkast

Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, Outkast's fifth studio album, came out on Arista on September 23, 2003, and it's really two solo records wearing one jacket. Big Boi and André 3000 had each made an album of their own, and when the label balked at releasing them separately, the two were packaged as a double album under the Outkast name, over two hours of music in all.

Big Boi's Speakerboxxx is Southern hip-hop with a progressive edge and a heavy dose of Parliament-Funkadelic, a tight, thumping ride through single parenthood, philosophy, religion and politics. André's The Love Below, which he produced entirely himself, all but leaves hip-hop behind for pop, funk, jazz, psychedelia and progressive soul, with Prince hovering in spirit, and its songs circle the tangles of love and romance. The guest list runs from Killer Mike, Ludacris and Jay-Z to Kelis and Norah Jones. "Hey Ya!" is the jolt that crossed over to rock radio, a frantic, hand-clapping, guitar-strummed pop explosion, and "The Way You Move" is a smooth, bumping strut.

It was a runaway smash. It opened with 509,000 copies sold in a week and gave the duo their first trip to the top of the Billboard 200, and critics crowned it one of the best records of 2003. "Hey Ya!" and "The Way You Move" both topped the Hot 100, making Outkast the first duo to replace themselves at number one. At the 46th Grammys it won Album of the Year and Best Rap Album, just the second hip-hop record to claim the top prize. After a 2023 update to 13-times platinum, no rap album has ever been certified higher.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.