Album Review : Big Boi - Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son Of Chico Dusty
- Written by Milen Jonas
It is time - finally the long awaited album from Big Boi is here. Otherwise known as the less extroverted half of the Atlanta based hip hop duo and Grammy award winning super group Outkast, Big Boi is known to stay true to the art of Hip hop and the streets that made him. The release of his first solo album was pushed back so many times, many wondered if it was ever going to grace the shelves of any record stores. But the son of Chico Dusty was so adamant to share his vision of bringing back good music, that he simply switched to another label in order to get the full backing he felt the album needed.
Sir Lucious Leftfoot: The Son Of Chico Dusty is a breath of fresh air in a time when most hip hop artists seem to have taken a more commercial approach to music in order to conquer larger markets. It features the kind of compositions with noticeable blurred genre lines, a style that some say is more associated with his partner in crime, the dapper Mr Andre 300. Not to say that this record doesn’t include successful pop elements, like the infectious chorus in ‘Follow Us’ ft Vonguette or the airy vocals by newcomer Janelle Monae in ‘Be Still’.
But rather than getting lost in these new sounds, he makes them his own by fusing them together with heavy bass music, psychedelic synths and the kind of funk influences that are associated with Outkast’s earlier releases.
The debut single ‘Shutterbug’ ft Cutty shows Big Boi at his best; the infectious vocoded vocals present throughout the song are heavily reminiscent of the New Jack Swing days of the early 90s. ‘Daddy Fat Sax’ is another gem where he puts out his message to the newcomers in the rap industry by dropping lines like, ‘Watch me stimulate the minds of the masses/while you ni**as look, like jackasses/I write knock out songs/you spit punch lines for money’. But like any other album there are some lukewarm tracks like ‘Hustle Blood’ ft Jamie Foxx and ‘Tangerine’ ft T.I. and Khujo, which seem to have just been thrown in for good measure.
The truth is that the album sports too many collaborations – there are guests on all but three songs to be exact. It makes you wonder if he started missing his partner in crime halfway through the recording process. Big Boi does prove to those who doubted him that Outkast is as much him as it is Andre 3000. At best, it is a good attempt that leaves you craving another Outkast album.