In 2003, I spent enough time rolling my shoulders and jutting my elbows on sweatbox-frenzied dance floors to earn the moniker “Mr. Pop ‘n’ Lock.” Most of these nights were in the back room of a faceless Chicago bar called The Hideout, on an otherwise industrial block just down from a diesel refueling station, where the ceiling was always draped in low-slung Christmas lights and the walls populated with taxidermied fish. On the surface, it was a bad year- radios clogged with war reports, my own brain bogged down with the drone of existential mini-dramas looped on repeat (work life…dating life…blah blah blah). But it was a banner year for dance floors, speakers bouncing out beats by Timbaland, The Neptunes and DFA, all operating at their peak, and the invigorating swirl of genres starting to bubble and blend, exemplified by Outkast on their hip-hop-electro-pop-funk-and-then-some twin discs Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. Off the dance floor, life was messy, crammed with stumbles and unknowns, but in that whirling vortex of bodies and bass and humidity-ridden, half-drunk stamina, when the DJ dropped a track like “Hey Ya,” the hardwood floor felt closer to a trampoline, and we all felt our spirits catch hold and burn a little brighter, remembering that, at least for now, it was pretty damn good to be alive.

Twin cocktails for twin albums, both completely spirit-based in the hopes of raising yours…

SPEAKERBOXXX:

• 1 ½ oz. rye
• ¾ oz. Aperol
• ½ oz. Lillet Blanc
• ½ oz. sweet vermouth
• a few dashes of Angostura bitters
• lemon twist for garnish

THE LOVE BELOW:

• 1 ½ oz. gin
• ¾ oz. Aperol
• ½ oz. Lillet Blanc
• ½ oz. sweet vermouth
• a few dashes of Angostura bitters
• lemon twist for garnish

For each cocktail, combine all ingredients with ice and stir, straining into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with the lemon twist.