Outkast - The Aliens of Southern Hip-Hop

OutKast, from Atlanta, were aliens in the New York of the “Source Awards”. They would turn this outsider status into a strength, a point of pride, a matter of identity: with a wordplay as simple as it was brilliant, they would come to define themselves as “ATLiens”, the aliens of Atlanta.

The third way for hip-hop: Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik and its role in Southern hip-hop

Southern hip-hop wasn't invented by OutKast, nor were they the first to achieve any real recognition. The most important among its founders are the Geto Boys from Houston, Texas, who had already shocked fans in the late Eighties and early Nineties with lyrics that pushed the explicit content of gangsta rap to the extreme, dwelling on murder, sex and assorted violence.

Other names from the early southern scene, such as the solo Scarface (himself formerly of the Geto Boys) and UGK, had already drawn the attention of fans while remaining tied to an aesthetic built on violence, sex and crime.

In Atlanta, however, there's at least one other hip-hop group that chose an alternative approach to the subject matter: Arrested Development. On their debut “3 Years, 5 Months And 2 Days In The Life Of…” (1992), the music is steeped in Christian sentiment, Afrocentrism, optimism and good vibes, and the album becomes an international hit. It's quite possible that OutKast, their fellow Atlantans, also drew on this creative reading of hip-hop as they searched for their own style, though more in philosophy than in actual results: Arrested Development are heirs to Public Enemy and their socio-political commitment, albeit rendered in a far more constructive than revolutionary key, while OutKast set off on a path that largely sidesteps political and social messaging, focusing instead on personal experience and psych-funk-soul fascinations.

André 3000 and Big Boi, after their years as schoolmates, join forces with the production team Organized Noize (Rico Wade, Ray Murray and Sleepy Brown) and decide to call themselves OutKast (also written Outkast; from the English word outcast). They themselves explain the meaning of the name in a spoken-word interlude on their debut, “True Dat”, which precedes many collaborations with Big Rube:

OutKast, pronounced outcast

Adjective meaning homeless, or unaccepted in society

But let’s look deeper than that

Are you an OutKast?

If you understand and feel the basic principles and

Fundamental truths contained within this music, you probably are

If you think it’s all about pimpin’ hoes and slamming Cadillac do’s

You probably a cracker, or a nigga that think he a cracker

Or maybe just don’t understand

An OutKast is someone who is not considered to be part of the normal world

He is looked at differently

He is not accepted because of his clothes, his hair

His occupation, his beliefs or his skin color

Backed by a contract with LaFace signed in 1992, on the heels of the success of Arrested Development's hit “Tennessee”, they too release their first single in 1993, “Player's Ball”. The track sells over half a million copies and introduces listeners to their colorful, fun-loving sound, livened up by the falsetto hook sung by Sleepy Brown and made even more dynamic by cameo appearances from Rico Wade (opening the track) and Peaches (near the close), alongside the two rappers themselves.

Their debut album, which followed the release of a handful of demos, Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik (1994), is a fusion of hip-hop with hefty doses of psychedelia, funk, r&b and soul. While the live instrumentation, the Seventies-flavored references, the grooves and the nostalgic melodies might suggest a collection of backward-looking tracks, the balance is achieved by blending these elements with solutions that keep pace with hip-hop's evolution, from electronic beats to the bass lines of the Memphis scene, without shying away from nods back to hip-hop's origins, such as scratching.

Across 17 tracks and 64 minutes, the album moves from the jazzy fragments of the intro to the sinuous psych-funk-rock of “Myintrotoletuknow” and the sensual title track, passing through more futuristic, danceable hip-hop numbers like “Ain't No Thang” and “D.E.E.P.”, others that are unabashedly laid-back and soul-inflected, like “Funky Ride” and “Crumblin' Erb”, and still others that are more aggressive, like the hypnotic “Hootie Hoo”, driven by howling backing vocals. On “Git Up, Git Out” (feat. Goodie Mob), they even make a point of steering young people away from drugs and street life, taking an approach quite different from that of the many violent, aggressive rappers topping the charts at the time.

Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik is a pivotal album for the rise of the Atlanta scene and for southern hip-hop's ascent into the mainstream, because it not only hails from the South, like the Afrocentric Arrested Development, but also presents a sound far removed from the clichés of the East Coast and West Coast, without chasing instant recognition from a crossover audience.

A debut dedicated to Atlanta in every rhyme and every sound, yet also one capable of putting the capital of Georgia on the map for the rest of the United States, right at a time when almost all of hip-hop seemed required to pass through New York or Compton.

The album went platinum at home, topping a million copies sold, but above all it helped Atlanta launch artists who would go on to become famous worldwide. Take TLC, also signed to LaFace, who had already scored with their debut “Ooooooohhh… On the TLC Tip” (1992; over 6 million copies worldwide), and who would go on to sell over 25 million copies with “CrazySexyCool” (1994) and “FanMail” (1999).

Similar success will also come to Toni Braxton, who was likewise signed to LaFace at the time of the bestseller "Secrets" (1996; over 15 million copies sold worldwide), the follow-up to her self-titled debut, which had already topped 10 million copies.

As we've already mentioned, in 1995 they win at the “Source Awards”, but the audience's reaction pushes them toward a style even further removed from the rest of the national hip-hop scene. Following the model of Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik and buoyed by its success, they're able to negotiate greater freedom with LaFace and evolve toward something even more… alien.

Atlanta's aliens: ATLiens and the big breakthrough

The debut was a success, but ATLiens (1996), the second album, is destined to change the duo's lives forever. Buoyed by having their own recording studio and intent on gaining greater control over the creative process, André 3000 and Big Boi also experiment with their first self-penned compositions and often choose to avoid sampling.

Decidedly more relaxed in its pacing, more alien and psychedelic, ATLiens is marked by echoes and reverb, with borrowings from reggae, dub and gospel added to what had already been heard on the debut. The themes explored in the lyrics expand to extraterrestrial life and space travel (obviously…). The content shifts from the violent hedonism of guns galore to telling the story of neighborhood life from a more positive perspective, one that moves away from drugs and violence. It will sell 350,000 copies in two weeks and reach the 2-million mark by 2003.

Looking back, knowing OutKast's subsequent stylistic evolution, this second album can be seen as transitional. It's a moment in which the two frontmen calibrate their own style, moving even further away from the rest of hip-hop, including southern hip-hop, as expressed in the lyrics of “Two Dope Boys (In A Cadillac)” (“This side niggas dusting, that side niggas lacing/ But in the middle we stay calm, we just drop bombs”), exploring a playful hedonism as on the title track, nodding to a laid-back psychedelia on “Wheelz Of Steel”, turning nostalgic on “Mainstream” (feat. T-Mo Goodie and Khujo Goodie) and spacey on “E.T. (Extraterrestrial)”.

The two singles placed back to back, the sensual “Jazzy Belle” and the alien, hypnotic “Elevators (Me & You)”, neatly sum up the album's exploratory spirit, while the long closer “13th Floor/Growing Old” makes clear a certain loss of density compared to the debut, verging at times on the long-winded.

However transitional in style, ATLiens has the merit of turning OutKast into a group whose success reaches well beyond the borders of Atlanta, laying the groundwork for the international, crossover success of the albums to come. Already at this point in their career, their music is of interest not only to the narrow circle of hip-hop devotees, a genre whose boundaries they helped redefine and expand.

The masterpieces of the turn of the millennium: Aquemini and Stankonia

Riding the success of their second album, OutKast can now afford total creative freedom, with session musicians, high-profile guests, even more elaborate compositions and the chance to improvise in the studio during the long weeks of recording.

Meanwhile, André 3000 in particular has become an increasingly charismatic figure, dressed on stage in the most flamboyant ways, and even a tabloid fixture thanks to his relationship with Erykah Badu. A relationship that changed him profoundly. Not only in his clothing, now flashy and ultra-trendy, and his increasingly eccentric hairstyles, but also in his lifestyle, which saw the rapper give up meat and marijuana, and in his spirit.

The third LP, Aquemini (1998), is produced by the two frontmen themselves, following the example set by Organized Noize. In addition to continuing the contrast between urban and alien found on ATLiens, the album draws a sharper distinction between the two rappers' contributions, with Big Boi handling the more typically hip-hop verses and André 3000 pushing toward experimentation and cross-pollination: it's a dynamic the group will take to its furthest extreme with a double album on which each will claim one of the two discs as his own, Speakerboxxx/The Love Below.

This duality, which here is still a fusion of two sensibilities, is reflected right from the title, which combines the rappers' zodiac signs: aquarius + gemini. Big Boi the Aquarius brings a clear-eyed fidelity to southern-hip-hop conventions, while André the Gemini is a two-faced Janus of content, innovation and references. The two constellations intersect, creating a controversial, multifaceted yet perfectly balanced rap galaxy, aptly named Aquemini.

Following the path already mapped out by ATLiens, the duo's approach to lyrics breaks decisively from the gangsta swagger typical of the coastal feud that had set the decade ablaze, embracing instead deeper themes such as human nature, individualism, masochism and drug addiction. It can safely be said that with their third record, OutKast folded into their style a mode of writing that fully belongs to the then-emerging conscious hip-hop movement.

The break from "old-school hip hop" is even more evident in terms of sound. First of all, both the samples and the live instrumentation brought in by Benjamin, ranging from funk to gospel, from disco to rock, give the album a remarkably articulate and sophisticated sound by the hip-hop standards of the time.

Across the 74-minute tracklist, it's easy to lose your bearings: the gently whispered psychedelia of the intro leads into the shadowy beat of the southern "Return Of The G". "Rosa Parks", on the other hand, brings back blues guitars and harmonica; while the title track slows down and echoes slyly, liquid and sensual. "Synthesizer" (featuring the luxury guest George Clinton) shuffles the deck even further, brushing up against the electro sound so dear to Afrika Bambaataa.

Shortly after, "West Savannah" betrays dub influences, just as "Mamacita" even has something of the eccentric, hybrid style of Wyclef Jean's solo work.

Beyond their variety, the tracks also stand out for the ambition of certain choices: "Da Art Of Storytelling" is split into two parts, the first firmly rooted in urban reality and the second set in an apocalyptic hell, while another track, "SpottieOttieDopalicious", opts for an orgiastic seven-minute psych-funk jam. At nearly nine minutes, "Liberation" is even more substantial, but completely different. The backing is delicate and elegant, betraying sophisticated r'n'b, jazz and gospel inspirations, laying down a carpet for the sly, slightly loose-limbed stride of the odd couple, which plays off against the sensual, flirtatious r'n'b lines of guest Cee-Lo.

Aquemini fields a roster of alien influences, unthinkable for a hip-hop record destined to tear up the charts. Yet it manages to shine even on more traditional tracks, such as when Big Boi and André enlist Raekwon to mount a gangsta assault over a crooked, loose-jointed beat titled "Skew It On The Bar-B".

Aquemini's impact on pop-rock criticism is neatly summed up by its place on Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums of All Time": in the 2003 version it sits at number 500, while in the 2020 revision it climbs to number 49. The influence of this hybrid, cross-pollinated strain of hip hop extends into the alternative scene of the late '90s and beyond, with threads leading all the way to Kanye West and Kendrick Lamar.

If Aquemini was the record that finally secured OutKast's standing and global recognition among critics and the hip-hop world, two years later, with the legendary Stankonia (2000), commercial and mainstream success would follow too. A genuine bath of fame and sales that would see the record reach number two on the overall Billboard chart and climb high on charts worldwide, with a resounding tenth place in the UK and fourth in Canada. Numbers that were anything but a given for a duo with such a thoroughly unconventional approach to rap.

If the revolution of Aquemini was to fold disparate, sophisticated elements into southern hip hop, that of Stankonia saw André and Big Boi not only widen the unstoppable whirl of influences already in play, but make it even more catchy, flirtatious, radio-friendly, dazzling. A move certainly carried out through the iconic singles "B.O.B." (platinum at home), "Ms. Jackson" (triple platinum at home, double platinum in the UK, quintuple platinum in Australia etc.) and "So Fresh, So Clean" (platinum at home), but also through the album's overall mood and its glittering appeal.

André Benjamin is a hurricane of creativity; his urge to fold in references, live instrumentation, styles and cross-pollinations knows no limits, acting on Stankonia like a kind of cosmic blender that swallows up clashing materials and spits them back out reshaped and irresistible, perfect for the turn-of-the-millennium market as much as for the most demanding hip-hop and alternative-music listeners.

Big Boi, on the other hand, brings his partner's lofty inventions back down to the hip-hop planet. Yet from this seemingly contrasting approach comes a one-of-a-kind balance, destined to go down in the genre's history from the moment of its conception. So hard to replicate that, as mentioned, on the following record the duo would "separate while still under the same roof".

Released in October 2000 on LaFace Records, Stankonia was recorded and produced almost entirely by OutKast themselves in an Atlanta facility the duo had recently taken over, previously owned by r'n'b artist Bobby Brown, which would duly be renamed "Stankonia Studios".

We mentioned André's unstoppable urge to plunge OutKast's hip hop into a mare magnum of influences ranging from funk to rave music, from psychedelia to gospel and rock, but OutKast's fourth album actually expands their lyrical universe too. It has all the glitter and coolness that were unavoidable in turn-of-the-millennium hip hop, but also the never-trivial thoughts of two writers looking inward, probing their own human and political conscience, grappling with tough subjects like racism and fatherhood.

In just over a minute, "Intro" does exactly what its name suggests, plunging the listener into a futuristic, submerged world naturally called Stankonia. There are sensual moans, spacey synthesizers and, above all, mesmerizing vocals inviting the listener to bounce and float along.

No sooner have you settled in than you're swept up by the explosive "Gasoline Dreams". The star of the show here is André, with an overpowering, unhinged rap delivery so intense that at moments he seems to be bellowing into the microphone, while all around him is a whirlwind of acid guitars, bass and relentless percussion. Essentially a deranged, psychotropic version of Run-DMC gone more hard rock.

Things cool down in the brief interlude "I'm Cool", where a female soul voice turns the chill given off by a hostile world into magnetism and sensuality, shifting from cold to cool, from a feeling of discomfort to one of total mastery over circumstance. What else could follow but the cheeky, swaggering "So Fresh, So Clean", one of OutKast's biggest hits.

The falsetto refrain André repeats to the point of obsession, the vintage keyboard licks shifting like sand on a beach at low tide, Big Boi's lethal counterpoint: it's all as simple as it is perfect. This time the radio stations are screwed, and OutKast reach everyone.

Not content with that, the two drop another heavy hitter right after. The swaggering gait, silvery keyboards, little piano flourishes, masterful scratches, effects as insistent as they are delicate, off-beat verses and a limping chorus are the backbone of a "Ms. Jackson" destined to tear up the charts, helped along by an iconic, cat-themed video.