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In The Number Ones, I\u2019m reviewing each single #1 single within the historical past of the<\/em> Billboard Hot 100, beginning with the chart\u2019s starting, in 1958, and dealing my means up into the current.<\/em><\/p>\n Look, I get it. I perceive. \u201cHey Ya!\u201d is a type of pop songs that just about instantly transcended the cultural confines of the pop-song type. The track belongs to each style and to no style. In its heyday, \u201cHey Ya!\u201d received performed on nearly each radio station, from R&B to alt-rock to grownup up to date. The single was a world-conqueror, and it represented the final word industrial triumph of one of many best, weirdest, most fearless rappers ever to do it, even when that rapper didn\u2019t rap a single line on the monitor.<\/p>\n For these causes and others, \u201cHey Ya!\u201d stands as one of many best unifying forces that pop music has given us this century. It\u2019s a track that everybody is aware of, one which nearly everybody likes. \u201cHey Ya!\u201d can be a track with concepts \u2014 about style, about melody, about relationships, about the entire concept of the pop track itself. Multiple generations regard \u201cHey Ya!\u201d as an apex second for chart-pop, a degree the place all the pieces simply got here collectively. So I\u2019m going to come back off as an asshole right here. It can\u2019t be helped. If you\u2019re right here to learn a treatise on the greatness of \u201cHey Ya!,\u201d please look elsewhere. It shouldn\u2019t be too troublesome.<\/p>\n \u201cHey Ya!\u201d is okay. It\u2019s fairly good, even. The track has hooks and vitality. It\u2019s easy, and it\u2019s sophisticated. It\u2019s enjoyable to consider. But I\u2019ve by no means been capable of finding a lot love for \u201cHey Ya!\u201d in my coronary heart. Some of that’s pure sour-grapes bias. I cherished<\/em> Outkast, and whereas \u201cHey Ya!\u201d is the group\u2019s greatest hit by far, it\u2019s additionally an Outkast track in title solely. The insane, world-altering success of \u201cHey Ya!\u201d made it functionally not possible for Outkast to proceed as a gaggle, although that practice would possibly\u2019ve already left the station anyway. It\u2019s a part of my job to evaluate the track that now we have, not the track that I wished. \u201cHey Ya!\u201d makes that process troublesome for me. The track is so overwhelmingly not what I wished.<\/p>\n On high of that, I\u2019ve all the time had an issue with the prevailing concept that \u201cHey Ya!\u201d stands above the opposite pop music of its second. When Andr\u00e9 3000, the extra stressed half of Outkast, went off on his personal and recorded his personal bugged-out experimental funk album, he would usually discuss in regards to the limiting nature of rap music because it existed within the early \u201900s. But rap music was unimaginable<\/em> within the early \u201900s. The early \u201900s, to my thoughts, stand out as a glittering golden period of Black American pop music. Virtually all the pieces on the radio had as a lot vitality, as many concepts, as \u201cHey Ya!\u201d Andr\u00e9 had been an lively participant in that sport for years, and his vitality and concepts had made rap greater and brighter and deeper and higher. But when that golden period was at its top, Andr\u00e9 dramatically introduced his exit from the sport, and he was lavishly rewarded for leaving it behind. The complete factor has by no means sat proper with me.<\/p>\n In that very same sense, the important consensus surrounding \u201cHey Ya!\u201d has by no means sat proper with me, both. Amidst this complete run of fantastic pop songs, the predominantly white important institution went into hosanna mode when Andr\u00e9 3000 made a track that primarily flattered sure basic-ass concepts about white rock \u2018n\u2019 roll. Critics didn\u2019t have to depart their consolation zones to embrace \u201cHey Ya!,\u201d and the track grew to become a rallying level for each author who thought the New Pornographers ought to\u2019ve been extra fashionable than Usher. None of that is the fault<\/em> of \u201cHey Ya!\u201d I\u2019m simply saying: I\u2019ve received some baggage with this motherfucking track. These columns are by no means<\/em> goal \u2014 no evaluations are ever goal \u2014 however it is best to find out about that baggage earlier than we get into this factor.<\/p>\n A few years earlier than \u201cHey Ya!,\u201d Outkast made historical past. They capped off a world-historical run of all-time basic rap albums by making their hottest report but. 2000\u2019s Stankonia<\/a><\/em> discovered Andr\u00e9 and Big Boi just a little extra frayed and stressed-out, however they had been nonetheless filled with ambition, nonetheless working towards a typical purpose. Outkast had already been vastly fashionable, however Stankonia<\/em> took them to a unique degree. The album ultimately went quintuple platinum, and \u201cMs. Jackson<\/a>,\u201d a conflicted however heartfelt track about love and resentment and acceptance, grew to become Outkast\u2019s first #1 hit on the Hot 100. <\/p>\n \u201cMs. Jackson\u201d went to #1 at a time when rap songs that didn\u2019t actively chase crossover-hit standing virtually by no means topped the pop charts. Outkast didn\u2019t pull the pander-moves that had been frequent in that period, and so they succeeded anyway. In the method, they helped shift the steadiness inside rap. Just a few years later, the style\u2019s middle moved to Outkast\u2019s Atlanta hometown. But the success of Stankonia<\/em> would possibly\u2019ve additionally hastened Outkast\u2019s breakup. Even as Stankonia<\/em> was simply popping out, Big Boi and Andr\u00e9 3000 had been discussing a loony-ass concept. The subsequent Outkast album, they might say, wouldn\u2019t be an Outkast album in any respect. It could be two completely different solo albums, packaged collectively. <\/p>\n The recording business is structured in order that label bosses can discuss celebrity acts out of goofy-ass concepts like these two solo albums, however Outkast had sufficient energy that they may do what they wished. Big Boi and Andr\u00e9 had completely different concepts that they wished to discover, however they didn\u2019t wish to break the group up simply but. When Outkast labored on their double LP Speakerboxxx\/The Love Below<\/em>, the 2 members would step in and assist out on one another\u2019s information, however there\u2019s little or no cohesion between the 2 albums. Andr\u00e9 and Big Boi didn\u2019t even trouble to give you a single title for the set. The album cowl was break up proper down the center, with each guys signaling that they had been saying various things. Andr\u00e9 and Big Boi weren\u2019t at odds \u2014 they\u2019ve by no means<\/em> publicly been at odds \u2014 however they weren\u2019t on the identical web page, both.<\/p>\n At this level, I don\u2019t assume it\u2019s particularly controversial to say that The Love Below<\/em>, Andr\u00e9\u2019s half of the double Outkast album, is an absolute fucking mess. When he made The Love Below<\/em>, Andr\u00e9 was primarily tired of rap, so he barely rapped. Instead, he went off and chased his goals of Prince\/P-Funk-style polyglot artistry. On previous OutKast albums, Andr\u00e9 had been in a position to pull off one thing like that. Tracks like \u201cSpottieOttieDopaliscious\u201d and \u201cLiberation,\u201d from Outkast\u2019s 1998 masterpiece Aquemini<\/em>, aren\u2019t actually rap songs; they\u2019re deep funk explorations. But these are nonetheless Outkast songs, made with the counterbalancing affect of Big Boi, in addition to Erykah Badu and the group\u2019s Dungeon Family friends. When Andr\u00e9 made The Love Below<\/em>, he didn\u2019t produce other voices to assist middle him, and that harm the report.<\/p>\n Andr\u00e9 3000 has all the time been a wildly proficient rapper. I might\u2019ve cherished to listen to him rap extra on The Love Below<\/em>, however the lack of rapping isn\u2019t actually the album\u2019s drawback. The drawback is that Andr\u00e9 was all the best way up his personal ass, making tedious art-funk that by no means appeared to have any clear intention. George Clinton and Prince, Andr\u00e9\u2019s heroes, might get indulgent, too, however they had been all the time making an attempt to get individuals to transfer<\/em>. When Andr\u00e9 got here out with a drum-\u2018n\u2019-bass free-jazz model of \u201cMy Favorite Things,\u201d he got here off like he simply wished individuals to inform him how intelligent he was. Before penning this column, I most likely hadn\u2019t listened to The Love Below<\/em> in 15 years, regardless of making an attempt very<\/em> onerous to love the album when it was new. I hoped perhaps I\u2019d unearth some hidden depths that I\u2019d missed earlier than. Nope. Butt-ass report. Just a few enjoyable moments caught in a 78-minute swamp of undercooked soup.<\/p>\n \u201cHey Ya!\u201d is without doubt one of the enjoyable moments. When the track first hit the web, the music-critic blogosphere \u2014 a really new factor on the time \u2014 thrashed round to seek out any type of comparability level. Did \u201cHey Ya!\u201d sound just like the Flaming Lips? Little Richard? The Beatles? The Knack? Prince? Devo? There wasn\u2019t any proper or fallacious reply. In completely different interviews, Andr\u00e9 would discuss loving the Smiths, or listening to the Ramones and the Buzzcocks whereas engaged on The Love Below<\/em>. Years later, Andr\u00e9 advised Rolling Stone<\/em> that he\u2019d flown to New York simply to see the Hives, the Swedish garage-rockers who had been of their buzz-band interval on the time. Andr\u00e9 missed a lot of the present, however he cherished what he noticed: \u201cI wouldn\u2019t have written \u2018Hey Ya!\u2019 if it weren\u2019t for the Hives.\u201d (The Hives\u2019 solely Hot 100 single, 2002\u2019s \u201cHate To Say I Told You So,\u201d peaked at #86.)<\/p>\n If you squint your ears, you’ll be able to hear traces off all these different artists in \u201cHey Ya!,\u201d however the track doesn\u2019t actually sound like every of them. \u201cHey Ya!\u201d is all Andr\u00e9. He wrote and produced the track himself, and he performed most of the devices. But there aren\u2019t that many devices on \u201cHey Ya!\u201d It feels like a rock \u2018n\u2019 roll track, however it\u2019s virtually fully voice and keyboard, with some strummy acoustic guitar in there. Andr\u00e9 received assist from a couple of session musicians: keyboardist Kevin Kendrick, organist Marvin \u201cChanz\u201d Parkman, backup singers Sleepy Brown and Myrna Crenshaw. Andr\u00e9 performed guitar and keyboards, programmed the drum machines, and sang the lead and a lot of the backup vocals. For each line on the track, Andr\u00e9 sang dozens of takes, usually working his voice by way of completely different filters. <\/p>\n At least in its first half, \u201cHey Ya!\u201d goes over a few of the identical lyrical floor as \u201cMs. Jackson.\u201d Nobody actually thinks of it this fashion, however \u201cHey Ya!,\u201d on paper, is a track about feeling helpless to maintain a relationship collectively. Andr\u00e9 begins out singing that his child don\u2019t fiddle, however he doesn\u2019t know whether or not that\u2019s out of affection or simply worry of being alone. He sings that his mother and father caught collectively however that \u201cwe don\u2019t know how.\u201d If nothing lasts eternally, then what makes love the exception? Why are we in denial after we know we\u2019re not completely satisfied right here? But Andr\u00e9 by no means sings any of these questions straight-up. He retains interrupting himself, repeating sure phrases \u2014 \u201cwhy oh why oh why oh\u201d \u2014 till they lose all which means. Then Andr\u00e9 involves a realization \u2014 \u201cY\u2019all don\u2019t wanna hear me; you just wanna dance\u201d \u2014 and the whole remainder of the track is simply party-time catchphrases.<\/p>\n You don\u2019t want me to repeat the catchphrases, proper? You already know them. The Beyonc\u00e9s and Lucy Lius, the Polaroid photos, what\u2019s cooler than being cool, and so forth. The sheer nonsense of that a part of \u201cHey Ya!\u201d must be enjoyable \u2014 Andr\u00e9 taking part in his personal hypeman, like some berserk mixture of James Brown\u2019s Bobby Byrd and the B-52s\u2019 Fred Schneider. I suppose it was<\/em> enjoyable as soon as? I truthfully can\u2019t bear in mind. \u201cHey Ya!\u201d is a sufferer of radio\u2019s tendency to overplay the shit out of some songs, and now I get irritated each time I hear that complete factor. <\/p>\n Part of the issue is the mere proven fact that Andr\u00e9 3000 can\u2019t sing. He would possibly\u2019ve put tons of various filters on each vocal, however he nonetheless sings the entire track in a nasal honk. That issues. When it\u2019s the height of the deregulated Clear Channel period and all these company radio stations are winnowing down their playlists to a couple songs that keep un uber-heavy rotation, it actually<\/em> issues.<\/p>\n I suppose it\u2019s attention-grabbing that \u201cHey Ya!\u201d toys with the thought of exploring romantic love earlier than simply shrugging and hitting the dancefloor as an alternative. Maybe Andr\u00e9 was making a degree about meaningless pop music, proper all the way down to the track\u2019s pure-gibberish title. Or perhaps Andr\u00e9 was simply chasing a sense \u2014 joyous frivolity within the face of uncertainty. Maybe Andr\u00e9 hid the track\u2019s level too<\/em> properly. Maybe he was pissed off when the Polaroid-picture bit grew to become the a part of \u201cHey Ya!\u201d that everybody remembered. <\/p>\n A fast apart about that Polaroid-picture bit: At the 2004 Republican National Convention, first daughters Jenna and Barbara Bush quoted that \u201cHey Ya!\u201d bit throughout their giggly speech, telling the world that their mother and father had been \u201cactually kind of cool\u2026 When we tell them we\u2019re going to see Outkast, they know it\u2019s a band and not a bunch of misfits. And if we really beg them, they\u2019ll even shake it like a Polaroid picture.\u201d The current previous is so fucking embarrassing.<\/p>\n \u201cHey Ya!\u201d appears to get a whole lot of bonus factors for refusing to sit down neatly inside anyone style. It\u2019s attention-grabbing to listen to funky synth-bass within the context of what\u2019s mainly a rock \u2018n\u2019 roll track \u2014 one which received performed on the identical indie dance nights because the Strokes and the White Stripes and all the opposite retro bands that had been being held up as potential saviors on the time. (I like most of these bands, however the concept that any of them had been as thrilling as Jay-Z or Missy Elliott or Lil Jon is even goofier on reflection.) <\/p>\n For me, although, the concepts aren\u2019t sufficient. \u201cHey Ya!\u201d is a enjoyable and energetic track, however it\u2019s skinny and brittle, too. Maybe \u201cHey Ya!\u201d seemed like a revelation at first. (Again, I truthfully don\u2019t bear in mind.) But inside a couple of months \u2014 even a couple of weeks, truthfully \u2014 cultural saturation turned \u201cHey Ya!\u201d into one thing oppressive and vaguely grating. I by no means<\/em> exit of my option to hear \u201cHey Ya!\u201d now. That track has nothing left to supply me.<\/p>\n But \u201cHey Ya!\u201d was a phenomenon; there was no escape. At the iTunes music retailer, which launched two years earlier, \u201cHey Ya!\u201d grew to become the primary monitor ever to promote one million one-dollar downloads. People had been shopping for the album, too. Speakerboxxx\/The Love Below<\/em> ultimately went platinum 11 occasions over. That quantity is just a little inflated, because the RIAA counts gross sales of double albums twice. But even for those who minimize that quantity in half, Speakerboxxx\/The Love Below<\/em> is simply<\/em> the biggest-selling album within the lengthy and proud historical past of Atlanta rap. <\/p>\n The \u201cHey Ya!\u201d video was a giant a part of that phenomenon. It\u2019s video. Bryan Barber, future director of Outkast\u2019s Idlewild<\/em> film, primarily restages the Beatles\u2019 foundational Ed Sullivan<\/em> look. This time, although, the invasion occurs in reverse, as a band of various Andr\u00e9s performs to a mob of screaming women in London. (Ryan Phillippe, in between Igby Goes Down<\/em> and one thing known as The I Inside<\/em>, places on a pretend British accent to play the host.) Andr\u00e9 does an incredible job appearing out all these distinct characters within the band, investing all of them with attraction and persona. But I don\u2019t know why Barber saved the screaming sounds going for the whole track; it makes the entire thing virtually unlistenable. For that motive, I\u2019m including an embed of the \u201cHey Ya!\u201d audio, with the intention to hear it with out the screaming.<\/p>\n Ever since \u201cHey Ya!,\u201d Andr\u00e9 3000 has gone into some model of retirement. Outkast will seem on this column once more, however Andr\u00e9 won’t. After \u201cHey Ya!,\u201d the subsequent single was \u201cRoses,\u201d the one track on The Love Below<\/em> to function Big Boi. The video riffed on motion pictures like Grease<\/em> and on the thought of a rivalry between Big Boi and Andr\u00e9. \u201cRoses\u201d cruised to #9 within the wake of \u201cHey Ya!,\u201d however it didn\u2019t get any greater. (It\u2019s a 5.)<\/p>\n Even earlier than Speakerboxxx\/The Love Below<\/em>, Andr\u00e9 was making an attempt to transition into appearing, taking part in a bit half within the completely forgotten 2003 Harrison Ford\/Josh Harnett buddy flick Hollywood Homicide<\/em>. Over the subsequent few years, Andr\u00e9 popped up in supporting roles in a couple of motion pictures \u2014 Be Cool<\/em>, Four Brothers<\/em>, Revolver<\/em>. Andr\u00e9 wasn\u2019t taking part in leads, however in these scenes, he was virtually all the time probably the most well-known individual onscreen. He was a heat, partaking display presence, however his style in initiatives wasn\u2019t nice. Those motion pictures are fairly dangerous. (Four Brothers<\/em> has its moments.) <\/p>\n In 2006, Outkast received again collectively for the Depression-era musical Idlewild<\/em>. I paid cash to see that film, and it fucking sucked. The film flopped, and so did its soundtrack album. That\u2019s the final Outkast album, and it\u2019s by far the least important. Idlewild<\/em> limped its option to platinum, however \u201cMighty O,\u201d its greatest hit, peaked at #77.<\/p>\n In the time since Idlewild<\/em>, Andr\u00e9 has taken occasional appearing roles in random-ass motion pictures and TV exhibits: Charlotte\u2019s Web<\/em>, Semi-Pro<\/em>, Jimi: All Is By My Side<\/em>, High Life<\/em>. He\u2019s apparently in Noah Baumbach\u2019s forthcoming White Noise<\/em>; I\u2019m wanting ahead to seeing that. But film stardom by no means occurred for Andr\u00e9 3000. Andr\u00e9 hasn\u2019t made any extra albums, both, although he\u2019s sometimes toyed with the thought. In the late \u201900s, Andr\u00e9 briefly caught the rap bug once more, making enjoyable appearances on remixes of tracks like Unk\u2019s \u201cWalk It Out\u201d and Rich Boy\u2019s \u201cThrow Some D\u2019s.\u201d Andr\u00e9 additionally rapped on John Legend\u2019s minor 2008 hit \u201cGreen Light.\u201d (\u201cGreen Light\u201d peaked at #24. John Legend will ultimately seem on this column.)<\/p>\n Andr\u00e9 appears to love dwelling a rootless existence, showing on different individuals\u2019s songs on occasion however by no means making any of his personal. Andr\u00e9\u2019s rap verses aren\u2019t all nice, however when he raps on somebody\u2019s track, it nonetheless appears like an occasion. In the previous decade, Andr\u00e9 has popped up on tracks with a formidable array of collaborators: Beyonc\u00e9 and Solange, Future and Travis Scott, N.E.R.D and a Tribe Called Quest, Kid Cudi and Vince Staples, James Blake and Anderson .Paak. As I write this, the very last thing that we\u2019ve heard from Andr\u00e9 is the lengthy, crazy verse that he recorded for Kanye West\u2019s 2021 monitor \u201cLife Of The Party.\u201d For causes too exhausting to get into right here, that monitor received left off of Kanye\u2019s Donda<\/em> album, however it made its means into the world anyway. Andr\u00e9 is nice<\/em> on that track, and it\u2019s yet another signal that he might return to rap full-time every time he needs. He doesn\u2019t appear to need that, although.<\/p>\n Instead, Andr\u00e9 3000 appears to be having fun with that Bill Murray existence, reworking himself into an city legend. You\u2019ll hear tales about individuals seeing Andr\u00e9 wandering by way of a used bookstore, taking part in a saxophone with a parrot on his shoulder. (I made that up, however you couldn\u2019t inform, might you?) Andr\u00e9 3000 doesn\u2019t owe the world something, and people \u201cHey Ya!\u201d royalties have presumably made him wealthy sufficient that he\u2019ll by no means should work once more for the remainder of his life. Good for him. I by no means want to listen to \u201cHey Ya!\u201d once more, and perhaps Andr\u00e9 doesn\u2019t, both.<\/p>\n GRADE:<\/strong> 6\/10<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n