Music Review: An array of beats

One half of legendary rap duo Outkast, Antwan André Patton or Big Boi’s latest album, ‘Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumours’, tells the tale a man who wants to push beyond what’s been done. A subtle frustration seemingly outlines the massive 17-track album, of a man who wants to do everything, mixing and concocting potent elements of traditional rap with psychedelic pop and moody beats. Perhaps the best examples of such experimentation are Shoes for Running featuring B.o.B. and Wavves with lyrics that hypnotically drone “Shoes for running, and I’ll race ya/Sun is coming, it’ll chase ya/The end is coming, I would race ya/But there’s no running, it’ll chase ya/Death will hunt you down”. Mama Told Me with Kelly Rowland that flows with an old-school 80’s dance beat masking a part-celebratory, part-derisive diatribe on freedom.

The sheer variety on the album is amazing without a doubt. Blaring, mental beats like CPU and Objectum Sexuality with Phantogram feature a menagerie of French lyrics, cybernetic tones, and wispy female vocals across a steady hip-hop beat. But there’s the traditional gangsta rap as well with In the A with T.I. & Ludacris and She Said OK featuring Theophilus London and Tre Luce.