OutKast
By All Music Guide
By All Music Guide
André Benjamin (Dré) and Antwan Patton (Big Boi) attended the same high school in the Atlanta borough of East Point, and several lyrical battles made each gain respect for the others skills. They formed OutKast and were pursued by Organized Noize Productions, hitmakers for TLC and Xscape. Signed to the local LaFace label just after high school, OutKast recorded and released Players Ball, then watched the single rise to number one on the ap charts. It slipped from the top spot only after six weeks, was certified gold, and created a buzz for a full-length release. That album, Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, hit the Top 20 in 1994 and was certified platinum by the end of the year. Dré and Big Boi also won Best New Rap Group of the Year at the 1995 Source Awards.
OutKast returned with a new album in 1996, releasing ATLiens that August; it hit number two and went platinum with help from the gold-selling single Elevators (Me & You) (number 12 pop, number one ap), as well as the Top 40 title track. Aquemini followed in 1998, also hitting number two and going double platinum. There were no huge hit singles this time around, but critics lavishly praised the albums unified, progressive vision, hailing it as a great leap forward and including it on many year-end polls. Unfortunately, in a somewhat bizarre turn of events, OutKast was sued over the albums lead single, Rosa Parks, by none other than the civil rights pioneer herself, who claimed that the group had unlawfully appropriated her name to promote their music, also objecting to some of the songs language. The initial court decision dismissed the suit in late 1999.
Dré modified his name to André 3000 before the group issued its hotly anticipated fourth album, Stankonia, in late 2000. Riding the momentum of uniformly excellent reviews and the stellar singles B.O.B. and Ms. Jackson, Stankonia debuted at number two and went triple platinum in just a few months; meanwhile, Ms. Jackson became their first number one pop single the following February. 2003s Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, a double album, debuted at number one and spawned a pair of number one singles: the Dré-fronted Hey Ya and the Big Boi-fronted The Way You Move. Three years later, as breakup rumors continued to swirl, they returned with the feature film #Idlewild and an accompanying soundtrack.
