MMM: Spread – OutKast

Milo here.

Ayo! We’re back with another MMM today! Lovely how things are feeling a bit more lively around here, eh?

Today, we are CAUTIOUSLY and APPROPRIATELY talking about Spread, an album cut (?!) from The Love Below, the André 3000 side of OutKast’s 2003 double-album, with Big Boi’s Speakerboxxx. Get some audio in ya below:

Let’s get this out of the way right from the get-go — this song is sex. It’s all sex and it’s a lot of sex. You know, like sex? Yeah, there’s a lot of sex in it. Yeah. Yeah, the sex. Yeah, it’s all sex. And this manages to be *exceptionally* sexy within a discography like André’s, which tells you a lot about the amount of fucking sex in this song. As much as of a total banger it is (pun obviously intended), there’s no surprise that Spread (it’s literally called Spread) wasn’t the first song picked as a radio-friendly single.
Which is, of course, a shame because, even beside the relentless horniness of the whole ordeal, this track manages to be a particular highlight on an album full of them. The instrumental is just another example of how much ingenuity is on display on The Love Below. The almost spooky keyboards that herald in the song give it a hyper sense of camp, this really fun atmosphere that lends itself to the lyrics, as well as the palette of the album. This can also be said of the chaotically played and arranged horn and piano passages, that litter themselves across the sonic space like underwear on a bedroom floor. It’s the drums though, the fuCkING drums, that really makes this track for me. The snares are batshit, unyielding and ridiculously crisp, battering the instrumental with a carnal energy. This is appropriate considering the *literally* pornography samples intricately scratched it by Cutmaster Swift.
Over this, though, it’s just another in the long list of exhibits proving that André 3000 is one of the most delightfully inventive and technically impressive vocalists of all-time. The singing passages are in this colourful falsetto echoing pop sentiments of the time, with a hook so tight and strong you can’t help but sing along in *any* situation. Of course, the rap is total and utter genius, ranking up there in my favourite André verses with all of his hallmarks; rabid sexuality, head-spinningly versatile flow and wordplay that’d make a porn star blush.

Lots of hugs, kisses and lacerations

Milo.