I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You by Aretha Franklin

Aquemini

Outkast

The leap forward that turned André 3000 and Big Boi into leaders of the hip-hop avant-garde.

Aquemini is the connective tissue between Outkast’s beginnings as local heroes in Atlanta and the duo’s full-fledged pop stardom. While their first two LPs featured no shortage of André 3000 and Big Boi’s tongue-twisting rhymes and the Dungeon Family collective’s off-kilter beats, Aquemini was the creative leap forward that turned an already critically acclaimed group into thought leaders of the hip-hop avant-garde.

Aquemini’s sound is a mix of the distinctly Southern and the distinctly alien—nowhere more so than on the single “Rosa Parks,” built on hollow snares and punishing bass but beaming with earthy acoustic guitars and a harmonica solo courtesy of André’s stepfather, Pastor Robert Hodo. It’s an album that prophesied the future of Atlanta—a misunderstood scene that was once dismissed as “regional” but eventually became the center of the rap universe itself. Aquemini drew the map.

I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You

Aretha Franklin

The Queen of Soul gets the R-E-S-P-E-C-T she deserves.

When Aretha Franklin made the decision to pursue a career in secular music after getting her start singing gospel, she knew she wanted to be a crossover artist. She even took the step of signing with Columbia Records’ John Hammond, the guru who’d discovered Bob Dylan—and who would later sign Bruce Springsteen.

Franklin would release nine albums with Columbia before moving to Atlantic Records and working with producer Jerry Wexler, the legendary record man who, alongside his partner Ahmet Ertegun, signed and recorded the greatest R&B artists of the 1950s and 1960s. The first record in this partnership, I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You, opens with Aretha’s signature, definitive take on Otis Redding’s “Respect”—a version so dynamic, Redding had no choice but to acknowledge its superiority.

“What I love about [‘Respect’] is it’s not just saying, ‘Give me respect.’ It’s demanding respect…She was unapologetically the Queen.”

Nicki Minaj

This would turn out to be the right sound for the right artist at the right time with the right songs, many of which she had co-written—including “Dr. Feelgood,” “Baby, Baby, Baby,” and “Don’t Let Me Lose This Dream.” After years in the music industry, Franklin finally had her first smash hit, and an otherworldly singer became the Queen of Soul.

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Aquemini

I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You