March 19, 2002
OutKast : The Whole World
...bare beatbox electro, with a whiff of Broadway show-tune swing...
OutKast
The Whole World (Arista)
You know that bit where Nicole Kidman popped her dainty clogs at the end of 'Moulin Rouge!', and a good two-thirds of the audience thought, "Thank fuck for that?" That was the moment where Big Boi and Dre were dabbing at their eyes with a tissue, and drafting an urgent email titled ‘URGENT!: MORE SEQUINS’ to their personal tailor. The video to ‘The Whole World’ finds hip-hop’s gayest straight men dressing up as garish circus ringmasters, and larking around with an elephant.
And the song itself is even weirder: bare beatbox electro, with a whiff of Broadway show-tune swing, and a line of backing singers croaking like a deranged frog chorus in the background. Rather presumptiously, this song kicks off Outkast ’s new Greatest Hits LP. Rather fantastically, it deserves to.
Louis Pattison
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