So I listend to Speakerboxxx/Love Below today, and have decided Speakerboxxx is the better album and Big Boi the, perhaps not better, but more vital, rapper. Allow me to elaborate.
Speakerboxxx is one of the most chill albums I know, it's up there with Superfly. It doesn't have as many standout tracks as it might, but it really creates a mood. If you smoke a blunt and listen to it it's like a religious experience.
Bowtie is a fucking pimp song, by the way.
Love Below is a great album too, but it just, there's no other way to put it, sounds too much like a Prince album. Which is a good thing, and I might feel different were I not such a Prince fan, but while it's a good album, it shows it's influence too much. Not only Prince, though he's the one I hear the most in it.
Now Dre bringing all these influences into a hip hop environment is good, but that's the problem... Love Below was too far removed from a hip hop album. That's why it worked better on Aquemini and Stankonia, he had Big Boi there to keep him grounded.
When they split it down the middle like that, it looks like Dre needs Big Boi, but Big Boi doesn't need Dre.