Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors

music:  Today Big Boi dropped his second solo album, Vicious Lies And Dangerous Rumors.  He has an awful lot to live up to after Sir Lucious Left Foot... The Son Of Chico Dusty.  That album was nothing short of a tour de force.  Every song felt like a revelation, realizing that I was not only hearing something thoroughly enjoyable but something I was pretty sure I had never heard before.  That ambition, while amazing, lent itself to a certain amount of inaccessibility   On Vicious Lies, Big Boi instead seems to have turned his innovation from the completely new to the very familiar.
Most of the album sounds like exactly the opposite of the one it follows.  Instead of being overwhelmed by the new, I found myself feeling very at homes in the sounds of Vicioius Lies.  The two most accessible songs, CPU and the single Mama Told Me, are songs that have synth heavy eighties dance groves that are reminiscent of Prince and Morris Day and the Time.  With a fast beat to rap over, Big Boi keeps that vibe alive while his female counterparts, Phontogram in CPU and Kelly Rowland in Mama Told Me, act as pop princesses making everyone just want to dance while taking a break from marveling at the lead artists mastery of his craft.
The song In The A is a traditional anthem.  With an aggressive beat pounding, three of Atlanta's best, Big Boi TI and Ludacris, spit four plus minutes of love for the city from which they all came.  Despite the fun of the two previous songs mentioned, this one may be the best of the album.  The beat, the aggression, the quality of the artists all lend themselves to an instant classic.
I couldn't help but be amazed throughout the album how well the other rappers worked with Big Boi and how well they fit into his style.  In The A was probably the one exception to that.  While listening to TI and Big Boi was a perfect blending of styles, Ludacris was the one who decided to stand out.  I was truly amazed that a guy with the skill and speed to keep up with Big Boi, one of our quickest rappers, chose instead to with just pure unadulterated aggression as he just screamed his love of his hometown into the mic.  And wow was that scream powerful.  With Ludacris focusing more on acting these days it was just a breath of fresh air to hear him, and to hear him stake his claim along side two of the best in the game, with that aggression no less, is exactly what is to be expected and exactly the reason to love it.
The album ends with a handful of slow jams, showing Big Boi not only can rip through a blazing beat but can also make some of the best R&B in the game.  The highlight of that was the albums finale She Said Ok.  It was slick and smooth and sexy and contains a chorus that should be the theme of all men who have ever lusted after a pretty girl.  No, I am not going to quote it hear.  Just listen and marvel and love him saying all the things we are really thinking.
I had an interesting thought when trying to describe Vicious Lies and the music of Big Boi in general.  I have a tendency to get lost in his music; listening to it over and over again until I have to drag myself kicking and screaming on to something else.  While I could say that that is a testament to how great an artist he is, I think it goes further than that.  Listening to him, whether now or when he was with Outkast, is a truly singular experience that you cannot get from anything else.  And in realizing that I compared him to System Of A Down, another band that I can't find my way out of once I am in the middle of their music.  There just is no good transition.  You find what you were looking for and then realize there is no one else that can give you the same thing.
While Big Boi didn't step nearly as far outside the box on his current record as he did on his last, his individuality still stands out as much as anybody's.  His perfect mixture of old school hyper-percussive delivery and innovate tones in his music are a combination that provides a nearly unmatched quality.  And while I can't necessarily listen to Vicious Lies and feel my life changing the way it did listening to Sir Lucious Left Foot, I can't help but wonder if that is the point.  Maybe Vicious Lies is just meant to be enjoyed.  Its like he said, "I showed you everything I have, now I just want you to kick back and have fun."  And that will be all too easy.