Back in the mid-90's, when I was in grad school in Maryland, the Washington Post had a habit of sending reviewers to the wrong movies. What I mean is that when summer rolled around, and the incredibly dumb blockbusters hit the screen, they would invariably end up being reviewed by somebody who was really into art-house flicks. And at the same time, obscure indie films about gay cowboys eating pudding would be reviewed by somebody who really wanted to see a special-effects extravaganza. This tended to produce a lot of unjustly negative reviews, but probably made the movie reviews more entertaining to read than they would've been otherwise.

Anyway, in that spirit, I present the following review of Speakerboxxx/ The Love Below. While those who know me well struggle to regain their composure, let me explain to the rest of you: Contrary to the first guess of a commenter, I'm one of the whitest guys on the planet. I'm not much of a rap fan (though I do firmly believe in the Two Good Songs theory)-- as noted with regard to this very album, I don't even like dance music. So the idea that I would buy a rap (double) album, let alone attempt to review it is probably almost as amusing as the image of me in a Mini Cooper...

I ended up buying this for three reasons. First, it got very good reviews in all the music magazines, so it's at least critically respected rap. Second, thanks to my recent hoops exploits, I had a gift certificate from Best Buy that I could blow on a couple of CD's. Third, and most important, it passed the critical Three Good Songs threshold the day I saw the video for "Roses" while channel-surfing (the songs in question were "Roses," "Hey Ya" and "The Way You Move," for those keeping score at home).

So, what did I think? Well, it's a weird couple of records (technically, it's a double album, but they're different enough that I'll treat them separately). The first disc, Speakerboxxx is pretty much a straight rap record (at least insofar as I can identify such), while the second, The Love Below, is trying very hard to be a Marvin Gaye album from another dimension. There's really not a lot of connection between the two, aside from a few backing vocal appearances by Andre 3000 on the Speakerboxxx songs, and the very odd Big Boi rap interlude in "Roses."