The music of Outkast has a special place in my life.

Having been raised by hippies in a house full of ’60s music - or, at best, later albums by artists from the ’60s - I suffer a certain amount of existential angst about missing out on the good old days of folk, rock & roll, soul, etc. That hasn’t stopped me from fiendishly searching it out and devouring it, but still, it’s a bittersweet taste.

I mention this because one of my main comforts when I feel overly regretful about missing, say, Sam Cooke in 1963 or Bob Dylan in 1969 or Bob Marley in 1975 is the knowledge that I was alive and kicking for Outkast in 1998. That’s the year their masterpiece Aquemini dropped and it changed my life. But whatever, this ain’t about me.

The centerpiece of Aquemini is Da Art of Storytellin’ Parts I & II, back-to-back songs with totally different musical and thematic vibes that, through the genius of Outkast, fit together hand in glove. A remix of the first part with a guest appearance from Slick Rick was eventually released as the album’s third single, but it always seemed to me like a siamese twin separated.

Aaanyway, a new Art of Storytellin’ has come out. It’s from DJ Drama’s upcoming album and it’s called part 4, so I guess the Slick Rick version was considered part 3. A file with a whole bunch of DJ drops has been floating around for a couple days, but this one is clean.

So, in celebration of some new Kast coming into the world, here’s the full Da Art of Storytellin’ Suite: ((Break!))

Part I:

DOWNLOAD (right-click the link and choose “save target as” (windows) or “save link as” (mac).)

Part II:

DOWNLOAD

Part III:

DOWNLOAD

Part IV:

DOWNLOAD

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