The Wild Card ...

I know that in some opins, it will be noted that this post is not truly about indy hip hop, since the group at issue has had a large degree of commercial success, but what about the sound? It's about the sound too homies ...

So, after an early start on the j-o-b today - meeting @ 9 a.m., followed by, heck, followed by things - phone calls, checking email, lunch more meetings, etc... (and I know this is the grind for many of you, but your girl has been on summer holiday, as the brits say) ... point is, it was nice to finally get to the small stack of music mail and see Big Boi and Andre 3000 staring up at me. That's right the unedited version of "Idlewild" is currently in my possession.

I've listened to about half of the disk and at least three tracks sounded familiar. Seems as if at some point in the past few months, I've heard "Mighty O," "Idlewild Blue (Don't Chu Worry 'Bout Me)," and "Morris Brown." Which is cool, but remember back in the day when you'd only hear one track from a project prior to its release ...? And the first place you would hear that song would be on the radio? Yeah, those are the days of old ...

But here we have 25 tracks - including lots of skits. "Idlewild" is primarily an Outkast cd in terms of personnel, but of course they get some of the best to share the spotlight. Macy Gray gets down with the duo as does Killer Mike and Snoop Dogg. It's a given that the unofficial third member of Outkast makes an appearance on this project - that person being Sleepy Brown. And that's not a bad thing.

I'm on the fence on this one thus far. And I'm keeping in mind that this is the soundtrack to the motion picture. Still it is not engaging me ... I will trudge forward AND with an open mind.

However, I must say that I truly admire what Outkast is doin - empowering themselves; building - positively - on their Grammy success. Some folks don't know how to parlay all that hip hop glory into a lucrative empire. Take note pee wee's ... on how to take it to the another level.

Will I go see "Idlewild," the movie, this weekend? I'd like to ... but if it is not showing in cow-town and if I can't drive the hour it takes to get to a major city where the movie will be playing and if I can't get all of my syllabi complete and all of my PowerPoint presentations complete and I can't get all of my Blackboard sections updated, yeah ... well, then count me out. The movie seems hot though. I like Macy Gray and then of course, there's eye candy Terrence Howard. I'll tell you what hip hoppers, I'll be hunting you down to get your opin, so post that up, ah-ight?

Keep feelin mighty fine - mighty fine, I say ... kfox