Sure, a hip hop album is a somewhat unorthodox choice for dinner music, but the grilled black cod with fried garlic and red chili flakes that Kasey is featuring on eating/sf today is unusually slick and fresh. It doesn’t rely on molecular gastronomy or unusual ingredients, but it is so simple and clean you could call it culinary chic. Similarly, Big Boi’s Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty is no ordinary hip hop album. It is full of unique samples, inventive rhymes, and a definite crispness and freshness that is sadly absent from most of the other rap records I’ve heard in the past few years. So I think for many of our readers, this solo album from Outkast’s bad boy MC actually pairs perfectly with this recipe.
Sir Lucious Left Foot has been a long time coming too. It was worked out years ago but nearly disappeared into label-induced limbo until Big Boi left Jive to finally release the album on Def Jam. An unfortunate result of the resulting red tape involved in a label-switch was that Big Boi’s Outkast partner Andre 3000 was unable to appear on the final release (although his contributions, including the track “Lookin’ For You” which I’ve posted below, are only available on the web). Still, this was always intended as a solo-album, and it more than adequately demonstrates that Big Boi is more than competent at flying solo (if you hadn’t figured that out after listening to Speakerboxxx). The lyrics are clever, thoughtful, and for the most part, successfully avoid resorting to the most common overplayed rap tropes. And just as importantly, the rhythms and melodies that serve as Big Boi’s playground are funky, concise and compelling. The punchy, concise synths on tracks like “Shutterbug” are a prime example of this. Tracks like “Tangerine” features music that twists and turns at every opportunity without feeling spastic or out-of-control. Grab the album on vinyl at Amazon.
Big Boi – Shutterbug (feat. Cutty)
Big Boi – Lookin’ For You (feat. Andre 3000 & Sleepy Brown)
Head back to eating/sf to read Kasey’s recipe for grilled black cod with fried garlic and red chili flakes.
