There’s no way you wouldn’t at least hum under your breath when “My baby don’t mess around. Cause she loves me so. This I know fo sho!” starts playing. Well, this extremely loved and popularized song is brought to you by non other than Outkast.
Outkast? huh? Who’s that?
This is a popular response I’ve gotten when people find out who exactly made this very popular song.
Outkast was an American hiphop duo formed in 1992 in East Point, Georgia. Andre Benjamin and Antwan “Big Boi” Patton, were Atlanta-based rappers who rose to fame from the mid 90’s to the early 2000’s. Their seemingly lighthearted music popularized Southern hip hop while also dabbling in sounds of funk, psychedelia, jazz and techno.
I say “seemingly” because under every light hearted, poppy beat, the Outkast sang about daunting life events and struggles everyone could relate to.
“Ya’ll don’t wanna hear me, you just wanna dance.”
Andre, or Dre, and Big Boi formed this group as high school students. They released their debut album Southernplsyslisticadillacmuzik in 1994 which became popular because of the single Player Ball, which hit number one on the Billboard Hot Rap Tracks.
One of my favorites of their 2000 release is definitely Ms. Jackson, which was one of the singles that contributed to their fame. In September 2003, the duo released the double album Speakerboxxx/ The Love Below, which is the album that featured Hey Ya and The Way You Move. This album eventually won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year.
The soundtrack for the 2006 musical film Idlewild would be the last project Outkast would put out together before they ventured out chose to pursue their own solo careers. Although they held a reunion at the Coachella Festival in April 2014 for their anniversary, they never got back together as a duo. They would both continue to release solo projects and albums.
Nevertheless, Outkast is one of the most successful hip-hop groups of all time. They received a total of six Grammy Awards, six studio albums, and a greatest hits release. They have also sold over 25 million records throughout their career. Additionally, they were featured on Rolling Stone and Pitchfork Media for a few of their albums. Rolling Stones described their music as “idiosyncratic” and “inspired by the Afrocentric psychedelics of George Clinton and Sly Stone.” They were praised for their unique sound.
What interests me about this duo is how, unlike other artists I’ve mentioned, they seem to have a “different story” that the others. And just a random fact, Big Boi graduated high school with a 3.68 GPA and planned on pursuing Child-Development Psychology, but chose to pursue rap instead.
I think I’d be one of those few who wouldn’t start humming when I heard those lyrics, just because I haven’t heard the song. But I love that your post gives a thorough debrief on Outkast and even recommends good songs of theirs to listen to. This is a great jumping-off point for a newcomers.
I don’t think I ever heard of any other songs, from this duo, rather than their most popular ones. But I’ll check it out eventually. I actually didn’t know much about this duo other than the name of the “group”. It seems like this group was pretty successful, so that’s good.
Also, I didn’t know that fact about Big Boi. I really like how, in the end, he chose to pursue his dreams rather than be “normal”. So that’s pretty cool.
I knew that Outkast sang Hey Ya, but I never knew the history behind the group! I was especially interested reading the part about how the one member traded in a high academic track for music, and I think that shows how following your passion should always be number one.
Alright alright alright alright alright alright alright this was cool I honestly thought they were a one hit wonder but I didn’t really know the rich history behind them.