Song of the Week: Big Boi feat. Andre 3000 & Raekwon – “Royal Flush”

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If you can’t tell by the YouTube video ranking every Outkast album, we are big fans of André 3000 and Big Boi over here. So it should be no surprise that I am once again choosing an Outkast song for Song of the Week, this time being Big Boi’s “Royal Flush” featuring Raekwon and 3000. Yeah, I guess it’s not technically an Outkast song but let me indulge for a moment. Here are some thoughts about “Royal Flush”:

  • For whatever reason, I had this filed under Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty in my iTunes Music app. That album came out in 2010 (which I actually reviewed back then) with “Royal Flush” coming out in 2008. More importantly, it doesn’t appear on the album’s final tracklist.
  • I remember hearing this on V-107 back in the day too. I didn’t hear the DJ introduction so I then assumed it was the return of the mighty Outkast. Nah.
  • This is basically a sequel to “Skew It On The Bar-B” off Aquemini. Chef even kinda had the same flow.
  • I wonder do people send André 3000 songs for features with an idea on long he can rap and he just doesn’t listen? “Royal Flush” is a little over three minutes and Dre’s verse is almost two minutes long.
  • That’s not me complaining though. The ATL legend ends the song and once again blacks out, bending and stretching words to his will. (Pause?)
  • “It’s cool when the kids call me Sunny, the hood calls me Stacks/The B’s call me honey, Hollywood calls me back”
  • Of course, 3000 is talking about his character Sunny Bridges from Class of 3000. That was a good show and basically his version of The Magic School Bus. Can we get a reboot of that? And also Freaknik: The Musical while we are asking for things.
  • Around 2008, Mr. Andre Benjamin was coming off a hot streak in Hollywood from doing notable movies like Be Cool, Four Brothers, and Semi-Pro. Now looking back at it, it feels like he is having the same sporadic output with movies as with his music. He’ll show up in a movie about Jimi Hendrix (A movie doesn’t actually didn’t have the rights to Jimi Hendrix’s music) and then he won’t do a movie for five years. He won’t show up on TV for eight years and then he is in some random show created by Jason Segel.
  • You know a rapper is talented when he raps the hokey pokey and it doesn’t come out wack.
  • This verse reminds me a lot of the one from Kanye West’s “Life of the Party”. That’s crazy because it’s a thirteen-year span between songs. It also shows why André 3000 is one of the great. Check out the Song of the Week below [claps hands together] BREAK!