MUSIC REVIEWS
Big Boi Presents... - Got Purp? Vol. 2
David Allun Jones
While his Outkast partner does the Hollywood thing, Big Boi has decided to stick with music and launch a new label, Purple Ribbon Records, featuring a blend of new and established Southern hip hop artists. Dubbed the Purple Ribbon All-Stars, the roster’s noteworthy inclusion of Killer Mike, Bubba Sparxxx, Goodie Mob and Sleepy Brown give the collective a sense of importance much more stronger than the million or so other hip hop cliques of the region. On their first release via a major label, the All-Stars compile a dizzyingly vast range of styles under the Southern hip hop umbrella, highlighting a new musical movement that dares to be both different and good, while instilling an overwhelming feeling of promise for great music in the coming years.
Since a majority of the cast are well-known on their own, tracks without Big Boi aren’t predetermined fast-forward material. Aside from the woozy posse cut “Kryptonite”, most of the highlights emerge from solo offerings. The much slept on Killer Mike starts the album off with a muscular jolt on “Dungeon Family Dedication”, another stand-out moment in his slo-o-o-o-wly rising career that finds him cleverly slandering the competition (“Is it me/ Or does Pharrell sound like Sleepy Brown back in ‘93?”) and bemoaning his crew’s undeserving lack of commercial success, then steals the show yet again with “My Chrome”, a lean romp through ATL circa Y3K. Elsewhere, Sleepy Brown steps right out of the 70’s with the shimmery Jackson 5-sampling soul of “Me, My Baby And My Cadillac” and Bubba Sparxxx takes us through the red light district on “Claremount Lounge” over a creepy synth beat. On that note, it’s a little surprising that the Goodie Mob entry “Hold On”, featuring a briefly returning Cee Lo, fails to be as exhilarating. Jotted in the middle of the album, the introspective cut holds up just as well as their classic nineties’ material, but in the midst of it’s more flashier surroundings feels a little stale.
As for the new artists, most are non-descript rappers, overshadowed by the more familiar names that surround them. R&B new jacks Scar and Janelle Monae show promise, both holding tender, expressive voices that recall cheery 80’s pop. But they also fall victim to the Goodie Mob syndrome as their innocent contributions don’t balance well with the grittier content the album otherwise presents.
Disjointed by nature, with too many pointless interludes taking up space, Got Purp succeeds on a song-to-song basis instead of an entire project. It’ll be hard for anyone to listen to the whole album all the way through without finding something that doesn’t fit their individual tastes. That complaint ultimately taints the whole album, despite a majority of the individual tracks being overwhelmingly intoxicating, continuing the Outkast trend of not being afraid to play with unorthodox productions. Embracing Got Purp as nothing more than an exciting preview for what’s to come, and further proof that Big Boi doesn’t need Andre to succeed, is a preferable approach, but it mostly builds anticipation for a reunion of hip hop’s beloved “odd couple” and what they plan to bring (together!!) in the new year.
