Music Review -- Big Boi

Big Boi
Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty
Def Jam, Purple Ribbon

One of the most important, character-defining questions of the modern era, one which threatened to split the nation down its seams and lead us to another bloody civil war: Speakerboxx or The Love Below? Really, though, the only proper answer to that question is "both" (but The Love Below is totally streets ahead. Just sayin'), but for those of you Speakerboxx fans out there, you're in for a real treat.

Antwan Andre Patton a.k.a. Big Boi a.k.a. Sir Lucious Left Foot a.k.a one-half of the greatest hip-hop duo alive finally released his debut solo album earlier this month after years of waiting and growing anticipation. His former label, Jive, were complete dicks and are essentially responsible for delaying the album a year and keeping several killer tracks featuring Andre 3000 off of the album. Yet despite all that drama, Sir Lucious Left Foot is an album that feels both incredibly polished and fresh. The tracks are heavy on the bass, but Big Boi delivers a slightly more varied and funkified sound than on Speakerboxx, and puts his high-caliber guests (T.I., Janelle Monae, B.o.B., and many more) to great use here. Big Boi's lyrics and smooth flow serve as an anchor for the tracks, allowing his guests and the music to branch off into a myriad of styles and sounds, from the electric thump of "Shutterbugg" to the piano-heavy R&B of "Turns Me On." While I've always viewed Big Boi's main strength as the ability to step in and deliver a couple fantastic verses, he's actually consistently good throughout the album - there's no real filler material here (almost unprecedented for a rap album).

I'll still maintain that The Love Below owns Speakerboxx, but Sir Lucious Left Foot is an impeccably crafted effort that stands as probably the best hip-hop album so far this year. It instantly hooks you, and the level of quality throughout ensures that you won't stop listening to it until the end of the last track. And it's a very promising sign of things to come: as Mr. Left Foot himself says, "Damn, that wasn't nothin' but the intro."

Grade: A-

If you only have time/money/patience for one track: "Follow Us"
Alternative choice: "Royal Flush" - one of the tracks that Jive cut, but it's definitely worth checking out as it features both Raekwon and Andre 3000 (at the top of his game)