https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWgvGjAhvIw&feature=kp Outkast served notice of their intent to add an element of femininity, or at the very least reduce the testosterone levels, of hip-hop with Ms Jackson. It was an ideology that would have been unheard of in the 80s. Can you imagine Chuck D from Public Enemy saying Im sorry Ms Jackson never meant to make your daughter cry, I apologise a trillion times.?" However, 'Hey Ya was the song that saw them leap from the musical strictures of hip-hip into a kaleidoscopic fusion of pop, gospel and funk. And despite the sunshine gloss of the chorus, its actually a very serious song about the nature of love and relationships. It sounded incredibly ambitious and it needed to be to carry the hubris they were going for here. In the video Andre 3000 plays the roles of all eight members of a fictional band called The Love Below. Positioning yourself as a one man version of The Beatles takes some cajones. Interestingly, his musical partner Big Boi was seemingly shunted to the side. Hey Ya was so catchy it suffered from chronic overexposure. It saturated radio stations the world over, but it had the musical chops to survive its success. Andre 3000 was the hip-hop showman equivalent of Jimi Hendrix (literally so, as he is about to play Hendrix in an upcoming biopic) to Dr Dres Brian Wilson. Fittingly, Hey Ya is a supremely virtuoso display of a breath-taking talent.
What makes music fantastic? Star quality, amazing music, breathtaking lyrics and the ability to bring something new to the table, even if that means a new take on the classics. That's what I love to listen to and write about.
As well as writing for What Culture, I occasionally write a blog http://tedney.blogspot.co.uk and sometimes use Twitter, but sparingly @TedneyNash