Every Wednesday, music nerd and serial list-maker Drew brings you a small, highly specific, pop culture-related list to either enjoy or inspire debate. He remains the only Popblerd staffer pretentious enough to name a column after himself. First things first: these aren’t necessarily the most underrated albums of all time. That’s a different column for a different day, and for my money, would probably be populated with a fairly tiresome amount of Boston bands (still the liveliest music city I’ve […]
New Release Report 12/11/12: Big Boi & Bruno Mars Head Up The Year’s Last Gasp
Big Boi, Bruno Mars, and Green Day lead the charge for the last major new release Tuesday of 2012.
Rolling Stone Introduces “The King of Hip-Hop” In New Article
…and actually, I have less of a bitch about this than you might think. Of course, Rolling Stone magazine has never exactly been the go-to place for anything related to hip-hop culture, so I automatically took their list of hip-hop titans with a grain of salt-even before I dug into it. However, upon reading it, I realized that their list was less about a “best rapper of all-time” discussion (which, let’s face it, would place them WAY out of their element) and more about […]
The Viewfinder: Big Boi’s “Be Still” (feat. Janelle Monae)
It’s scary to believe that just a little more than half a decade ago, OutKast was the hottest group on the planet. Meanwhile, Big Boi’s excellent solo debut, Sir Lucious Leftfoot-The Son of Chico Dusty, came out (after numerous delays) last summer, to pretty much universal indifference. One of the best albums in hip-hop’s most artistically fruitful year in ages, it deserves a second chance for sure. If you want a taste, you might want to check out the video […]
Moonlighting: My Big Boi Review on Popdose
I must admit, I was very surprised by the quality of Big Boi’s debut album “Sir Lucious Leftfoot: The Son of Chico Dusty”. Like many people, my brain sort of fooled me into thinking that Andre 3000 was the brains behind OutKast and Big was just kinda the John Oates of the operation. Boy, was I ever wrong. “Leftfoot” is a non-stop funky good time. The production is slamming, Big’s verses are tight, and it’s not overindulgent like even the […]
Chart Stalker! 7/14/10: Hip-Hop Saves the Day
So much for saying that rap music is a dying commercial art form. If it wasn’t for hip-hop, this week’s #1 album would have only sold 45,000 units. Rappers manage to take the top three positions on this week’s Billboard album chart, led for a third consecutive week by Eminem. “Recovery” continues to defy expectations, experiencing only a 27% drop in it’s 3rd week and selling a still impressive 229,000 copies. The last album to sell more than 200,000 copies […]
New Release Report 7/6/10: Big Boi is Finally Set Free
Remember when there was the big hubbub about Big Boi’s “Something’s Gotta Give” video? It was pretty much a 4-minute campaign ad for Barack Obama, and despite the fact that the song was kinda “eh”, folks were hopeful that Big’s debut solo album was gonna bring the goods-especially after OutKast’s somewhat odd “Idlewild” soundtrack. Well, that Big Boi album-“Sir Lucious Leftfoot-The Son of Chico Dusty”-is finally arriving…damn near halfway into President Obama’s first term. Leaks and label drama have derailed […]
"The ArchAndroid": Too Weird for It's Own Good?
I love music that disproves the currently prevailing theory that all black folks know how to do musically is either rhyme about thuggin’ or sing slow booty jams. Not that there’s anything wrong with either of those things per se-but I prefer my music to have a little more substance while still being palatable. Which is why when it comes to rhymin’: Jigga? Yes. Gucci Mane or Rick Ross? No. Maxwell? Yes. Trey Songz…he’s getting there, but not quite yet. […]
Popblerd Premiere: Big Boi's "Shutterbugg"
OutKast is the rare hip-hop group that’s totally followed their own drummer while maintaining or increasing their popularity. While I’ve been patiently waiting for Big Boi and Andre 3000 to reconnect, we’ve been given several morsels from Big Boi’s forever upcoming solo debut “Sir Luscious Leftfoot”. Silly-ass title aside, this album has been in the works for two years plus, and now that Big has aligned himself with Def Jam (I guess Arista was fuckin’ up), it looks like all […]