(AP) — Big Boi’s solo effort, Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty, starts with a whistle that kicks up images of tumbleweeds just before a Wild West shootout. He’s no cowboy, but the baritone rapper still has the no-nonsense swagger of John Wayne that established him as the less fanciful half of the duo OutKast.
It’s that hard-nosed style that lends itself to General Patton, in which Big Boi mounts a verbal attack against hangers-on and assailants of the South – all backed by a cathedral choir fit for the score of Angels & Demons.
The frantic beat on “Night Night,” featuring B.o.B. and Joi, is only rivaled by Big Boi’s delivery. “Straight out the plastic like a pack of footies no-show … you cannot see me and that’s fo sho,” he says, a sign that his humor goes beyond the disc’s comical interludes.
One of the album’s best collaborations — and there are many — features Big Boi playing background to the out-of-this-world, futuristic Janelle Monae on the dreamy “Be Still.”
Big Boi brings on the legendary P-Funk lead man George Clinton to join him, along with Too Short and Sam Chris on the smoky, slow-fast-slow “Fo Yo Sorrows.”
And not all of his partners on the album are buzzed-about names — new guy Neil Garrard helps Big Boi out on “Follow Us,” in which listeners get in-sight into why the industry veteran has returned.
“I’ve been patiently waiting to weigh in/ Been under construction for two years but now it’s bout that time I Double Dutch my way in/ Left foot right foot, steppin over biters/ It’s like the game is haunted cuz there’s so many ghost-writers.”
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