OutKast became one of the biggest groups in hip-hop history through a more traditional grind. After signing with L.A. Reid and LaFace Records when the duo was only 17, they built their following, year after year, by releasing albums—like Aquemini and Stankonia—that spoke for their evolving worldviews and maturation as men. Each record built on the lessons of the previous one; each release was a bold statement and an unselfconscious reach for an ever-increasing audience.
By the time of 2003's Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, OutKast had become one of pop music's biggest phenomena, racking up Grammy awards and watching the ball roll to their first feature film. It was also the beginning of the end, as they diversified, started working on solo projects. They would release one more album, Idlewild, and move on.
This weekend, the legendary Atlanta rappers will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, cementing their status as a transcendent group. Because of the occasion, we found ourselves thinking about the interesting and unexplored stories from their careers. You may know a lot about OutKast, but here are some you didn't. Click below to check out 25 Things You Didn't Know About OutKast.
[This story was originally published on April 27th, 2013. It has since been updated.]
They had two names before settling on OutKast.
They initially selected the name "2 Shades Deep," found out it was already in use, then "Misfits," which was also taken. But after looking in the dictionary at "misfit," they saw its synonym, "outcast," and chose to use its phonetic spelling.
André, Cee-Lo and Sleepy Brown planned on forming a band called Pimp Trick Gangsta Clique.
The reference to the "Pimp Trick Gangsta Clique" album was a joke in the "Return of the G" skit on Aquemini. But André also claimed it was a real group, who had actually recorded songs. "Back then all the hood record labels were called stuff like Slap a Bitch Records or Big Dick Records, so we made up the group name Pimp Trick Gangsta Clique. Me, Sleepy [Brown] and Cee-Lo were going to form an actual band called Pimp Trick Gangsta Clique. We recorded some stuff but never released anything under that name."
Big Boi had a 3.68 GPA and planned on studying Child Psychology at NYU before rapping popped off.
A lot has been said about what OutKast was planning before music took them elsewhere; it's also been said they were planning on selling dope at one point. But while André didn't finish high school, Big Boi graduated and, according to an interview with Spin in 1997, planned on studying Child Psychology at NYU: "I like the way kids grow and adapt," he said at the time.
A studio excutive tried to convince OutKast to make Idlewild a 48 Hours style film set in Atlanta.
Big Boi wasn't impressed. He responded, "Somebody done told ya wrong about us folk. We OutKast," and walked out.
Big Boi has a strip club, equipped with a pole, mirrored walls, and a raised, lighted floor in his house in Fayette
Don't act surprised.
Tim Melchor, who had been Stevie Wonder's bodyguard, was OutKast's tour manager.
He's actually worked security with many major musicians, but managed for OutKast and Goodie Mob from the mid 1990s through their 2001 Stank Love Tour.
Guitarist Zafar Salik Saood, who had performed and written songs with Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, served as André's personal music tutor in the early 2000s.
The guitarist came up with Lionel Richie and was actually in his band before it became The Commodores. He helped Michael Jackson with songwriting in 1984, and in a piece in the September 2001 issue of Vibe, seemed to act as André's musical guru, putting him onto music like "hissing, frenetic Gnawa trance music from Marrakech." Saood passed away in 2010.
When André was "10 or 12," he smashed a copy of "When Doves Cry" on the sidewalk because the b-side "God" scared him.
"It sounded creepy," he told Complex when explaining his longtime interest in the music of Prince. The rapper/musician had been asked, at the time, if Prince had made an impact on the recording approach to The Love Below; André described this formative experience with Prince's music, as if to suggest that the influence went much deeper.
Big Boi's "Unhappy" was about his parents' relationship.
"Shit rubs off on you," he told Vibe at the time. "You might be acting a certain way [in a committed relationship], and it's because of what you saw as a child."
In high school, André taught Big Boi how to roll his first joint.
This was something that, reportedly, Big Boi found hilarious, as André has since given it up completely.
André 3000 claims to have had his heart broken twice.
By the time he made The Love Below, Three Stacks had his heartbroken twice: Once in high school and once around the time of the group's debut.
The second girl to break André 3000's heart was Keisha Spivey from the group Total.
Around the time of recording his first album, Dre dated Keisha Spivey of Total before Total became famous. After being heartbroken, he was celibate for a year before meeting Erykah Badu.
OutKast recorded their debut in a studio owned by Bobby Brown.
They would later buy the studio and christen it Stankonia Studio.
They planned to sell dope to get studio money, but were signed at age 17 to LaFace instead.
Before singing to LaFace, both members quit their jobs as shoe salesman. "I do remember Dre in a Cadillac wit' a Glock gettin' high, waiting for niggas to run up," André's cousin Angelo said in a 1998 interview with Vibe.
In 2008, Big Boi performed in a stage production called Big with the Atlanta Ballet.
Big Boi and musicians from his Purple Ribbon label would "weave among the dancers, performing tracks that include OutKast's "Liberation," Janelle Monáe's "Metropolis" and "Sir Luscious Left Foot Saves the Day," an unreleased [at that time] song.
In 2004, OutKast appeared on Buckwild, a show on Playboy TV.
Hosted by Ken "Buckwild" Francis, the Playboy TV show Buckwild was hip-hop themed and included guest stars like OutKast, Lil Jon, and Snoop Dogg. It was cancelled soon thereafter, and Francis was later arrested and sentenced for his part in an ecstasy ring. Oops.
As of 2003, both André and Big Boi owned apartment complexes run by their mothers in Cartersville, Georgia.
Everyone knows about their clothing line, Big Boi's Kennel company, and the group's label efforts. But like many artists, they have other investments, including real estate, which is largely handled by their mothers.
André played every instrument on "Hey Ya" except for the bass.
In the video, though, he played every part.
André told Big Boi he would no longer tour after the group was on the road with Lauryn Hill in 2002.
It had nothing to do with Lauryn, though. André, who is the more introverted of the two, was uncomfortable touring.
In 2014, the two would go back on tour, starting with Coachella that year and ending with Bestival in the UK. It seems like that will be the last tour we'll ever see from the two. Last year, during an interview with Rolling Stone, André said: “I knew when I was, like, 25, that at a certain age I wouldn’t want to be onstage doing those songs."
"Player's Ball" came about when the duo was offered a spot on a Christmas album.
Thus the bells in the song's beat.
Idlewild was originally written as a video treatment by André and director Bryan Barber, and was not intended to be a $27 million film.
Originally Idlewild was conceived when OutKast first became involved in the soundtrack to the film Scooby Doo. At the time, it wasn't intended to be more than a small music video treatment, until the wild, Grammy Award-winning success of Speakerboxxx/The Love Below propelled OutKast to another level of stardom. HBO became interested, and it soon became even too large for that station, ultimately receiving wide theatrical release.
Legendary actor Ben Vereen joined the Idlewild cast because his daughter was a huge OutKast fan.
Ben Vereen is a legendary star of stage and screen, a Tony Award-winning actor who appeared in stage productions of Jesus Christ Superstar and Pippin, as well as the film Roots. Vereen's daughter was working as the personal assistant to Idlewild director Bryan Barber.
"Ms. Jackson" is a reference to Erykah Badu's mother.
André dated Erykah Badu and had a child with her named Seven. "Ms. Jackson" was an apology directed at Badu's mother after the two's relationship had come to a tough end.
André credited talking about Aliens with sparking white people's interest in the group.
"When we started doing the more experimental rap, started talking about aliens, that's when more and more white people started coming to the shows," André told the New York Times in 2003, referring to the ATLiens years.
Rosa Parks sued OutKast for use of her name in 1999, and the lawsuit dragged on for six years before the group and
Rhea McCauley, niece to Rosa Parks and a spokesperson for her family, said at one point: "I'm not a doctor, but I know, dementia or not, my Auntie would never, ever go to this length to hurt some young artists trying to make it in the world. As a family, our fear is that during her last days Auntie Rosa will be surrounded by strangers trying to make money off of her name."
Theories that she had been pushed to sue OutKast by greedy attorneys had spread from the beginning, and some argued, were confirmed, when news broke later on that Parks may have been dealing with dementia as early as 2002. The lawsuit was finally settled when their label agreed to pay for several educational programs, a tribute CD, and a broadcast special about Parks.