Eccentricity ages well.
Outkast offered a brilliant case-in-point when their reunion tour came to the Governors Ball Music Festival on Randall's Island Friday. The two man hip-hop group revived a sound from up to twenty years ago that still sounded crisp mainly because it has never been properly imitated.
The particular amalgam of styles Andre 3000 and Big Boi sifted together on six bright albums represents something unique in hip-hop. It combined the rapid-fire verbiage of the most complex rap with the deep funk of '70s bands like the Ohio Players or Parliament-Funkadelic, then elevated it with a lacing of absurdist wit worthy of Frank Zappa.
Andre 3000 of Outkast on stage during the Governors Ball Music Festival Friday.
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Big Boi of Outkast performs at the Governors Ball Music Festival Friday.
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Opening the show with their classic track "B.O.B." (for 'Bombs over Baghdad"), the two began spitting out rhymes with a velocity that threatened to tie their tongues into unbreakable knots. While reports from early in the reunion tour — specifically at its opening date at the Coachella Festival — painted the two as distant from each other, with little rapport after seven years apart, here they interacted like brothers.
Outkast has been given lot of credit, deservedly, for starting the wave that pulled hip-hop's center of gravity away from the East and West coast, towards the deep South. That's geographically verifiable. But the sound they created there wasn't properly picked up by any of the lower lying state rappers that came in their wake — not from the power bases of Florida, Texas or New Orleans. There's an elaborate musicality to their work, and a childish sense of play, only created by them.
The pair have gotten less credit for proving the power, and appeal, of lousy singing among rappers — something later picked up by everyone from Kanye West to Future.
Andre and Big Boi had plenty of help in fleshing out their sound. They brought with them a full, horn-anointed band and backup singers. They also drew from a deep catalogue, serving up roughly two-dozen songs in a near two hour set.
The early part of the show featured hits like the loopy "Ms. Jackson" or the controversial "Rosa Parks" (which caused the woman herself to file a law suit). From there, the pair broke down into individual sets. Big Boi's featured his best-known R&B song "The Way You Move" while Andre's portion moved from the hilarious romantic satire "Prototype" to his ultimate ear-worm, "Hey Ya!"
The latter hit idealizes one element of Outkast's tricky style — their merging of hip-hop beats with irresistible, childish rhymes. That's evident too in their old school number "Hootie Hoo" or the see-saw tune of "So Fresh, So Clean." The result doesn't sound anything like any other music out there now, which explains why, all these years later, it still sounds so out-there.
The multi-day Governors Ball will continue through the weekend, with sets on Saturday from stars like Childish Gambino, The Strokes, Skrillex and Jack White, and on Sunday, with Foster The People, Interpol, James Blake and, the event's final headliner: Vampire Weekend.
jfarber@nydailynews.com
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