If OutKast’s catalog have been a meme, it will be: “Never let them know your next move.” André 3000 and Big Boi constructed their legend on protecting listeners guessing—even poking enjoyable at their fixed reinvention on their third album, Aquemini.
“First they was some pimps, man,” a fictional file retailer buyer gripes on an interlude, alluding to the Atlanta duo’s debut. “Then they was some aliens, or some genies, or some shit. Then they be talkin’ about that Black righteous space. Man, whatever.”
You couldn’t put OutKast in a field in the event that they have been a recent pair of gators.
That’s the fantastic thing about operating again their discography: Every album appears like a brand new world, fueled by the push-and-pull between Big Boi and Dré. It’s bittersweet to know artistic distance finally stalled their output, however that very same distinction gave the music its edge. It’s a giant purpose ’Kast stays one of the crucial progressive and influential teams hip-hop has ever seen.
Big Boi was the anchor: a slick, streetwise storyteller with a knack for turning A-Town plight into poetry you’ll be able to see. André was the dreamer, reaching past rap to chase the liberty of guitar heroes like Hendrix and innovators like Prince. Together, they created a daring catalog that may stack up in opposition to the all-time greats.
It all began at Tri-Cities High School in East Point, the place Antwan Patton and André Benjamin linked up as college students. But musical actual training got here within the cramped basement recording studio of Organized Noize producer Rico Wade, affectionately generally known as the Dungeon. That’s the place these two dope boyz from the A crafted their 1994 maiden album, Southernplayalisticadillacmuzikproving there have been wealthy, distinctly Southern tales value telling past the period’s East-West hip-hop binary.
No one may’ve predicted what got here subsequent: harmonica hoedowns (“Rosa Parks”), hyperspeed rule-breakers (“B.O.B. (Bombs Over Baghdad)”), sung serenades (“Prototype”). But that’s type of the purpose.
You want Three Stacks and Sir Luscious Left Foot stored tugging on the limits of what hip-hop may look, really feel, and sound like. But OutKast’s affect continued lengthy after their remaining album, 2006’s Idlewild. They handed their DNA to generations of artists from Atlanta (T.I., Future, J.I.D.) and past (Ye, Kendrick Lamar, Tierra Whack). The self-proclaimed coolest motherfunkers on the planet gave hip-hop permission to be bizarre, to discover new sounds and types, to maintain listeners guessing.
With Big Boi and André 3000’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Saturday (Nov. 8), there’s no higher time to take a cool journey by means of the OutKast canon. Here’s a glance again at their studio albums, ranked from worst to finest.
Label: LaFace
Producers: Organized Noize, Big Boi, Johnny Vulture (André 3000), Mr. DJ, Whild Peach, Nate “Rocket” Wonder, Jeminesse Smith, Kevin Kendricks
Features: Lil Wayne, Snoop Dogg Sleepy Brown, Khujo, Scar, Janelle Monáe, Killer Mike, Whild Peach, Macy Gray
Speakerboxxx/The Love Below was Outkast’s most formidable endeavor. When it turned out to be the head of their success, they determined to play with home cash.
Big Boi and André dove deep into the multi-layered Idlewild, a movie after which a movie soundtrack. The film starred each MCs in a star-studded interval piece musical set through the Prohibition period. While the movie soundtrack appeared like the large band jazz and ragtime of that point interval, their album, Idlewild, was a group of recent materials unrelated to the movie, however borrowing from its aesthetic and spirit. Tracks like “Morris Brown,” “Mighty O,” “Call the Law,” and “Idlewild Blue (Don’tchu Worry ‘Bout Me)” noticed the MCs taking part in with Delta Blues, HBCU marching bands, and electrofunk.
However, at this level, the chemistry between the 2 had modified. Their completely different tastes now not complemented one another the identical manner that they had earlier than, which makes the truth that this turned out to be their remaining album to date a disgrace. Idlewild jogs my memory of The Beatles’ Let It Be or A Tribe Called Quest’s The Love Movement; a reliable album with a handful of nice tracks that in the end made for an anticlimactic swan tune. —Matthew Allen
Label: Arista
Producers: Big Boi, André 3000, Mr. DJ, Carl Mo, Dojo5
Features: Sleepy Brown, Jazze Pha, Killer Mike, Bambe, Big Gipp, Ludacris, E-mac, Jay-z, Khujo, Cee-Lo, Henry Welch, Slimm Calich, Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz, Mello, Toni Hunter, Rosario Dawson, Fonzworth Bentley, Kelis, Norah Jones, Qasha Aman
After the business success of StankoniaOutkast was on the point of splitting up.
Big Boi was on the verge of doing his first solo album, whereas André had dedicated to stretching out as an actor. But weeks earlier than Big Boi was due to launch his solo debut, André submitted an album’s value of songs of his personal to be included as a companion. The outcome was Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. Fans seen the hole between the contrasting MC types of the 2 rappers steadily elevated with every album. So, Speakerboxxx/The Love Below was the logical presentation—two solo albums as one undertaking, though they every made contributions to the opposite.
Big Boi’s Speakerboxxx disc was a good train of fusing hip-hop and funk with danceable tracks like “The Way You Move,” “Bowtie,” and “GhettoMusick.” Andre’s Love Below disc was an eclectic experimentation. Songs like “Hey Ya!,” “Prototype,” and “She Lives in My Lap” had influences of soul, drum-n-bass, electronica, pop, and Minneapolis musings, whereas André selected to sing on all however two tracks.
The gamble paid off commercially, promoting over 10 million copies and turning into solely the second hip-hop undertaking to win a Grammy for Album of the Year. However, within the context of their catalogue, Speakerboxxx/The Love Below is one thing of a disappointment, by no means reaching the artistic highs of their earlier work. —Matthew Allen
Label: Arista/LaFace
Producers: Organized Noize
Features: Goodie Mob
Back when New York City and Los Angeles have been deadlocked in a hip-hop tug-of-war—a time when calling somebody “country” was thought of shade—André 3000 and Big Boi firmly planted their flag in Atlanta’s crimson clay terrain. Distinct from the Afrocentrism of Arrested Development and Kilo Ali’s ass-shaking bass music, OutKast’s debut was the potion that gave their metropolis movement (and an identification): Southern-fried tales about gangstas, pimps, and hustlers, narrated by two teen prodigies nonetheless discovering their manner.
Even of their earliest verses, you’ll be able to hear the spark of what made OutKast legendary. The title observe and “Ain’t No Thang” serve up irresistible hooks and twang. “D.E.E.P.” finds Big Boi kicking road knowledge and his signature one-liners (“I’m gettin’ deeper than that prostitute’s vagina”). “Crumblin’ Erb” is smoother than suede Caddy seats, a smoke-filled meditation from a younger duo already pondering past MARTA limits. And the album’s breakout single, “Player’s Ball,” gave Christmas a brand new type of jingle. Backed by Organized Noize’s unique instrumentation, these songs really feel alive, swelling and pulsing with soul and taste. OutKast went on to attain better musical peaks, however Big and Dré’s rookie album is a landmark that lit the way in which for a era of spitters who’d by no means been prouder to name ATL—or wherever within the South—house. —John Kennedy
Label: Arista/LaFace
Producers: Earthtone III (Outkast and Mr. DJ), Organized Noize, Carl Mo
Features: Khujo, Killer Mike, J-Sweet, Gangsta Boo, Eco, B-Real, Backbone and Big Gipp, Erykah Badu, Slimm Calhoun, C-Bone and T-Mo, Cee-Lo, Sleepy Brown, Big Rube
The story of Stankonia started far-off from the A, when André 3000’s ears perked to the sound of drum and bass whereas OutKast toured London in 1999. Hip-hop hadn’t been transferring him. That speedy percussion did. From that seed sprouted “B.O.B. (Bombs Over Baghdad),” a 155-BPM explosion that fused high-octane rhymes, electrical guitar licks, and a down-home gospel choir into one thing gloriously alien. At a time when mainstream rap leaned glossy and glitzy, OutKast let its freak flag fly and reimagined what the style may sound like. Again.
That experimental urge programs by means of OutKast’s superstar-making fourth album, the second when Big Boi and Dré went from Atlanta advocates to cartographers of hip-hop’s future. Stankonia gave era-defining hits (“Ms. Jackson,” “So Fresh, So Clean”), a fiery Killer Mike introduction (“Snappin’ & Trappin’”), and the genesis of André singing his coronary heart out.
Alongside producer Mr. DJ, OutKast pushed musical boundaries by mixing funk, psychedelia, rock, and soul right into a sound that also feels radical, all whereas getting actual about every little thing from hip-hop materialism to teenage being pregnant (“Toilet Tisha”). You don’t get Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly, Janelle Monáe’s The Arch-Androidor Childish Gambino’s Awaken, My Love! with out Stankonia blazing the path. —John Kennedy
Label: Arista/LaFace
Producers: Organized Noize, Outkast
Features: T-Mo, Khujo, Big Gipp, Cool Breeze, Witchdoctor,
After incomes their stripes with their debut album, what did OutKast do for an encore? They went left, and so they went darkish.
ATLiens leaned into the cruel realities that rap notoriety nonetheless hadn’t equated to turning into wealthy past their wildest desires, exemplified superbly within the album’s two most iconic tracks, “Elevators (Me & You) and the title track. However, songs like “Two Dope Boyz (In a Cadillac), and “Decatur Psalm” discovered André and Big Boi doubling down on their devotion to their hometown.
While Organized Noize returned as the first manufacturing group, Outkast additionally started producing some tracks themselves, with out sacrificing any sonic cohesion. “Wheelz of Steel” and “Elevators” previewed the duo’s rising manufacturing acumen and their signature fusion of brooding stay instrumentation with the guttural drum programming attribute of The Dungeon. ATLiens additionally highlighted Outkast’s distinctive model of Afrofuturism—from the album’s comedian ebook styled art work to the otherworldly, drumless textures of “ET”—a sound they might proceed to refine on subsequent releases. —Matthew Allen
Label: Arista/LaFace
Producers: Outkast, Organized Noize, Mr. DJ, Donny Mathis
Features: Rakeh, Galgeon C-motton, Big, Kium, She-Loh, Eryhebay
Fans weren’t deterred from Outkast following ANSWER darker sonic descent from Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik.
In truth, they grew to become much more invested within the duo, now that Outkast had confirmed there was extra to them as MCs and producers. Their third album, Aquemininoticed the pair taking better management of their musical imaginative and prescient. They went from producing 5 of ANSWER fifteen tracks to practically half of Aqueminiwith Organized Noize nonetheless a significant presence and newcomer Mr. DJ becoming a member of the fold.
The album title was a mixture of Big Boi’s and Andre’s astrological indicators, illustrating how the contrasting flows, personalities, and factors of view of every MC complemented one another as a substitute of clashing. Songs like “Rosa Parks,” “Liberation,” “The Art of Storytelling,” and the title observe discovered the duo reaching a brand new gear that nobody may predict. Their rhymes have been crisp, assured, esoteric, and poignant, whereas the music was extra huge, adventurous, and dangerous. What different rap group may make a harmonica solo on a tune bridge (“Rosa Parks”) and do a seven-minute spoken phrase observe led by bombastic brass (“SpottieOttieDopaliscious”) and make it work? —Matthew Allen