Hard to believe we never picked this up back when it was released, but you gotta understand that we were on the tail end of our hip hop snob days back then. Outkast had gone pop with the "Whole World" circus show, then come out with the near-d&b sledgehammer "B.O.B." and the inner hard rock in us wasn't sure if we were still down with these dudes. Put it short, we had the wool on our eyes, sleeping. And this is the one that got away. Well here's a new repressing of Stankonia, and another chance to cop one of Kast's finest. Longer (24 tracks), more experimental and more invested than any of their previous albums, this one is like a three day feast/orgy/mushroom fest. It's got the instant gratification tracks like "So Fresh, So Clean," "Ms Jackson," and "We Luv Deez Hoez," the aggro "Bombs Over Baghdad" and "Gasoline Dreams," the space soul joints like "I'll Call Before I Come" and "Slum Beautiful" (Sa-Ra wishes...), and more shit that doesn't fit description. But you all know that already. Double vinyl.

• black double vinyl pressing
• music label: LaFace Records 2000

reviewed by the mgmnt