Put That On Your Playlist: Da Art Of Storytellin’ (Pt. 2)

Song: Da Art Of Storytellin’ (Pt. 2)

Album: Aquemini

Honourable mention: Funky Ride (Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik), Roses (The Love Below)

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There’s something so utterly beautiful and desperate in the best of ways behind the idea of Da Art Of Storytellin’ (Pt. 2), this song that details OutKast’s firm belief in needing to host one last, final party as humanity and our world are dying. It’s maybe not as revered as the first instalment in the series (we think?) but for our money it’s equally as great, if not outright better. From the haunting “All’s well, nothing’s well” of the chorus — if we can even call it that — to the brooding piano, Pt. 2 is quite simply pretty in ways that music often isn’t.

Here are two young men so hellbent on creating that they must bring the MP and the SP as they travel carefully to the centre of the Earth because “Mama Earth is tossing and turning and that’s a sign” and they want — nay, they need to create one final song. Pt. 2 is so intoxicating that you feel every bit of emotion as Big Boi is “making a path on expressway” on his way to the recording studio. It’s a short song at only 2:52 but you feel the weight of every second of it, and what’s a few seconds when history and the end of the world await on the other side? By the time Big Boi ends his verse saying that, “Writing the raps and doing the beats to make this last recording. Fuck abortion, I got in the booth to run the final portion,” you’re absolutely exhausted and spent. The beat was very dirty and the vocals had distortion, as he says, and you’re so enamored with all of it.

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Beat: 10/10

Lyrics: 10/10

Overall: 10/10