It’s Thursday and that means it’s time for another installment of Track You May Have Missed. This week’s comes from the legendary rap duo OutKast. With all the buzz surrounding their 40 festival reunion tour, I thought it was fitting to present you with slept on track from the ATLiens. ‘Hollywood Divorce’ comes off the soundtrack for their 2006 motion picture ‘Idlewild’. The track was produced by André 3000 and features guest spots from Lil Wayne and Snoop Dogg. The track is phenomenal all around, but two things that really make this track standout are Lil Wayne’s verse (yeah, seriously) and André 3000’s.
Let me start out by saying I’m by no means a fan of Lil’ Wayne and haven’t enjoyed his music since the days of ‘Shine‘. But he actually comes through and drops a pretty impressive verse. It contains solid wordplay, punchlines that make sense and lyrics that compliment the concept of the song. What truly makes this song special is the verse from André 3000. He absolutely kills this track with the sharp and intelligent wordplay that has garnished him respect as one of the greatest lyricist of all time. It is best exemplified by, “D is for what I serve, I don’t be on no curb/ She ain’t no junkie neither, I ain’t no dope dealer/ But she keep comin back, three stacks must be some crack/ Put that pipe in her lap, she ain’t know how to act.” And no disrespect to Big Boi and Snoop Dogg as they come through with solid verses as well.
The whole track focuses on how hip-hop’s evolution to the mass market has affected the artists and the culture in general. André summarized it best on the outro “All the fresh styles always start off as a good little hood thing/ Look at blues, rock, jazz, rap/ Not even talkin about music/ Everything else too/ By the time it reach Hollywood it’s over/ But it’s cool/We just keep it goin and make new shit.” A statement that’s even truer now, then it was back in 2006. Interestingly enough the concept could also be applied to mainstream explosion of “EDM” but whole that’s a whole nother debate in and of itself. Enjoy the music!
