It was right around Labor Day 2003 when HERC first felt Big Boi's "The Way You Move". That's right, felt. The subsonic bass shook his then-new 2003 Honda Odyssey. In the rush of first listen ignorance, HERC wondered how they got Marvin Gaye to sing the hook. It was maybe two or three weeks before his nephew picked up the Outkast double CD Speakerboxxx/The Love Below when it was released. About that same time, the local Top 40 station began playing Andre 3000's "Hey Ya!" which sounded like it was from the Eighties. HERC was a fan of both songs and eventually they both topped the Hot 100: "Hey Ya!" hit in December 2003 and then "The Way You Move" followed in February 2004. Despite the dates of their release and chart peaks, both songs share the Summer Song Of The Day honors today.
Earlier in 2003, about a year before "The Way You Move" hit the top of the charts, Big Boi and Sleepy Brown (the Marvin Gaye soundalike) teamed up with Killer Mike on the bouncin' track "A.D.I.D.A.S.", the chorus of which would have been a playground smash back in HERC's elementary school days. Surprisingly, despite the subject matter and that killer singalong chorus, the song made it all the way up to #60 on the Hot 100 though it didn't fare much better on the R&B/Hip Hop chart, hitting #42. HERC just checked his iTunes play counts and this one has a slight lead over the previously mentioned two songs. Wanna get your neighbors' attention? Drive around with windows down and "A.D.I.D.A.S." blasting out your deck.
That was a solid one-two punch from Outkast! These songs were my first exposure to the group.
ReplyDeleteHERC knows you used to live in the Dirty South, Martin, so of course you were all about the Outkast but no love for Killer Mike's ditty?
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