Das EFX, "They Want EFX":

Outkast, "Rosa Parks":

EPMD, "Crossover":

... and a few songs later, Father M.C., with "I'll Do 4 U", a track that somewhat mysteriously is a big hit on one station in Tyler, Texas, and nowhere else. (Aside from my heart.)

While some message-board cranks aren't thrilled with the change, it feels like every other commercially viable radio format— from "Jammin' Oldies" to those phony "we play what we want" stations—has playlists that have been crushed into a soulless cube of banality. Keep playing Another Bad Creation on a semi regular basis, Phoenix's The Beat, and catching up on my local commercials just might be worth it.

92.7 The Beat [homepage]

Thankfully, none of the article's four reporters throw the already regrettable phrase "Radiohead model" around, but you have to wonder if that In Rainbows wasn't at least a little on the mind of the acts profiled.

LL Cool J will complete his three-album deal with Def Jam with the Aug. 5 release of "Exit 13." By the end of the year, 50 Cent is expected to put out "Before I Self Destruct," the fourth and final album on his Interscope deal. OutKast owes LaFace/Zomba three more albums under the duo's four-album contract, with all three releases expected out later this year and next year.

Tiphanie Watson, co-manager for OutKast's Big Boi, says the duo hasn't decided yet whether to seek another deal with a major, but adds, "It's much more beneficial to do it on your own. For an artist with an established fan base, there's more than one way to come up with strategic branding."

LL Cool J is hardly a hot property these days—even if Def Jam is partially to blame for his decline, as he seems to think—but you'd have to think there's some life left in 50 Cent; Outkast, even after Idlewild, seem to be capable of several successful albums if they can stay in the same room long enoughe. However, one decidedly non-major label would like to let any and all acts know that there's always a home for them at Koch.

Signing with an indie label is the best option for hip-hop stars nearing the end of their deals, says Alan Grunblatt, GM/executive VP of Koch Records, which has charted with Jim Jones, DJ Khaled and Yung Berg. "With a major you'd get an advance, no masters and the deal would be based strictly on royalties," Grunblatt says. "Koch would do a licensing and/or a P&D deal."

If there's any justice in this industry at all, 50 Cent will end up on Koch, a label he famously referred to as a "graveyard". Then again, wasn't he supposed to retire or something? What happened to that?

Top Rap Acts Weigh Options As Record Deals End [Billboard]

Audience members will be pulled on stage. Dancers will weave their way through the audience. Big Boi and a live band will perform some of his greatest hip-hop collaborations.



But the greatest collaborating may be the pairing created by Stallings and Big Boi when Giuseppe Verdi's "La Traviata" is intertwined with "Morris Brown," a cut from OutKast's "Idlewild" soundtrack.



Those contrasts — "physical but sublime, beautiful but ugly, loud but soft," in Stallings' words — are exactly the feelings this fusion ballet is intended to evoke, both artists said.



"Its very moving, sophisticated, elegant but at the same time it will tear your back off," Big Boi said.

The show, which is getting good buzz despite the static traffic accident present in the footage above, ends with Big Boi's new single "Sir Lucious Leftfoot Saves the Day." I think we can stop calling Andre 3000 the crazy one.

BIG ballet "Kryptonite" at the Atlanta Ballet [YouTube]
Hip-hop meets ballet in Big Boi's 'big' debut [CNN]

ONE-LISTEN VERDICT: OutKast as a group has given us so much, it's hard to really complain. But still, every great track with Big Boi and Andre 3000 helps me forget the misstep of Idlewild a tiny bit."International Players Anthem" helped quite a bit, and if "Royal Flush" is any indication, Big Boi's solo album, Sir Luscious Left Foot, might finish the job. Big Boi sounds more like his Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik era self, and any appearance by Raekwon is appreciated. If nothing else, I appreciate Andre's (who apparently is going by "3 Stacks" somewhat officially now) rhyme of "Nintendo Wiis" and "Whopper with Cheese". Classic.

Big Boi, 3 Stacks & Rae - Royal Flush *CDQ* [Nah Right]

That mix of application and instinct carries over to his personal style. It takes a certain serenity to rock the resplendent Bixby outfit he recently wore to a Fashion Week party: wide-brimmed fedora, green waistcoat, buttery brown leather riding boots ("vintage") that pushed his pants up, jodhpur style. He looked more like a wealthy, eccentric caballero than a thirties jock toff, but then, he wants the line to tell stories. Benjamin Bixby, he says, "is a character who's kind of like your uncle, or your granddad, and he has a closet full of experiences and clothes, and he's been around the world..."

Tearing pages out of magazines as a kid left Benjamin with a reverence for English style: He fetishizes "timeless" clothes, name-checks old-school brands like Turnbull & Asser, and calls his own style "classic spontaneity" or "rebel gentleman." What this means, in effect, is doing a little remix. Here, he's wearing a Façonnable shirt with Polo khakis and a tie from his new line worn as a belt. "There has to be something inventive about it," he says. "But not so inventive that it's a turnoff. So that some of the greats, like Beau Brummell or the Duke of Windsor, would nod and say, 'Well done.' Those guys killed it." Now, that's hip-hop.

Considering the good Mr. Brummell infamously "claimed to polish his boots with champagne," that might not be so wide of the mark as haters might think. Not even hip-hop's most ball-'til-they-fall spendthrifts have suggested scrubbing a pair of kicks fresh and clean using Cristal. That we know of, anyway.

Andre Benjamin Launches New Clothing Line, Benjamin Bixby [New York Magazine]

Frankly, I'm tempted to just post a bunch of animated arrows pointing to the clip above and leave the writeup at "WATCH THAT!!" But though the "International Players Anthem" video was so best that it even managed a couple plays on cable TV, this miniature domestic dramedy is a straight-up bonus, part of a full audio-video package in an era when "MTV doesn't even play videos anymore!" barely rates as a punchline, as well as a reprieve from the p-poppin' parade of pole-dancers set to the iTunes hot ringtone chart. As for the soundtrack that outshines the film? True, you can't (and shouldn't) ignore the thrifty Three 6 Mafia re-recycled backing track; my sister echoed many this year when she said could barely hear past the luminiosity of that Willie Hutch sample to the four gents talking over (underneath?) it. But there's also meter-flaunting Andre 3000 playing (with) the rhythmic angles—"lit-tra-chure" and "chi-ro-prac-tick" being points where he's just showin off how far he can stray for the hell of it, infurating some and charming others—over a beat-less intro that's barely a net, the boldest and funniest in his recent breadcrumb trail of guest verses, where "not a pimp" Dre still sheds a sly tear over all those moistened drawers of the past during the year's sweetest pledge of fidelity to not only lovers and friends but extended family and the partner that we all suspected had strained under so much sideways break-up gossip. Outkast veneration aside, let us not forget that first-billing does truly belongs to two of the best to ever have their cell phone bills sent to addresses below the Mason-Dixon, with the final stretch of Bun B's verse the year's best "just try and follow along with the bouncing ball" moment. And when Andre suddenly cedes the spotlight to the rhythm track, it's no R.I.P. revisionism to say that Pimp C's chest-out entrance would distract from any drums. His like-it-rough-and-preferrably-strings-free definition of romance may not square with yours—personally, I lean closer to Andre's kilts and corny email gags—but he sure as hell sells it, another part that you can't imagine the hip-hop whole of the year working as well without.

UGK feat. Outkast - "International Players Anthem" [YouTube]
UGK [MySpace]
Idolator's 2007 Top 40 List Of Awesomeness

Clocking in at 25 songs and 78 minutes, Outkast's Idlewild was a chore to wade through; Lord only knows why no one at the label (or in the group) realized that the thing needed to be pared down by a good half-hour or so. But those listeners who were patient enough to let the album simmer for a bit were treated to a handful of solid tracks ("The Train," "N2U") and at least one great single with "Morris Brown," which combines a marching-band beat with vocals by Sleepy Brown and Scar. It's not "Hey Ya!" part two, but the whirling chorus deserves a bigger audience.

Outkast feat. Sleepy Brown and Scar - Morris Brown [MP3, link expired]

But the strangest twist is near the end, regarding some sleazily opportunistic new price schemes regarding Parks' expensive Detroit crypt:

For the seven crypts nearest to Mrs. Parks, which fetched $45,000 to $50,000 last year, prices were raised to $60,000. More than three dozen other crypts in the outer hall of the chapel were repriced at $24,275 each as of last April; they had been $17,000 to $20,000 before Mrs. Parks's interment...One of the hallway crypts now belongs to Proof, the rap artist who was killed in a gunfight last spring.

Not be sound crass, but ever since reading this, we've had a charming, unshakeable image of Rosa up in heaven, politely but firmly asking her new neighbor to turn down that damn rapness.

Rosa Parks Won a Fight, but Left a Licensing Rift [NY Times]

Outkast - The Train [MP3, link expired]
Outkast - Life Is A Musical [MP3, link expired]
Outkast - N2U [MP3, link expired]