OutKast’s Powerful Words Stir House of Blues Crowd

If there were an Olympic competition for rappers, OutKast would be on everyWheaties box in America.

The Atlanta hip-hop duo features the two most agile hip-hop orators in the business, turbocharged MCs who pack more words per beat than any of their contemporaries.

At the House of Blues on Thursday, OutKast stirred up a furious hip-hop tempest, punching out its urban manifestoes before a crowd that mimicked every vocal nuance and shout-out.

Andre Benjamin (Dre) and Antoine Patton (Big Boi) provided a contrasting study in rap style onstage. With his Mets jersey and diamond-encrusted necklace, Big Boi was a paragon of heavy-lidded gangsta cool, while Dre’s ghetto-fabulous, flamboyantly foppish getup suggested a refugee from either Parliament-Funkadelic or “H.R. Pufnstuf.”

The team’s garb provided a visual metaphor for its sound, which alternates between fractured, funky fables and pointed inner-city cautionary tales.

“Red Velvet” called the whole notion of ghetto style into question, declaring “Bill Gates don’t dangle diamonds in the face.”

In “Ms. Jackson,” an irresistible nursery-rhyme chorus belied the song’s simmering nastiness.

OutKast’s beats, which were provided by the astounding DJ Swirl, were spare and unobtrusive, which is as it should be: Sonic clutter would just cramp OutKast’s style.