Hollywood Flashback: Outkast Found a Breath of Fresh Air With ‘Stankonia’
Outkast proved they were “for real” when Stankonia became a sensation 25 years ago.
Composed of André 3000 and Big Boi, the Atlanta-based hip-hop duo previously hit No. 2 on the Billboard 200 album chart with both 1996’s ATLiens and 1998’s Aquemini. Ray Murray, whose long relationship with Outkast began with their 1994 debut studio album as part of producing group Organized Noize, recalls the two rappers as preternaturally talented but benefiting from structure.
“They were great MCs [but] just rapped forever and didn’t have the thought-out hooks,” Murray tells The Hollywood Reporter about those early days.
Stankonia collaborators remember Outkast feeling confident during recording sessions for their fourth studio album, which has been lauded for bringing the Dirty South hip-hop sensibility to such genres as funk, gospel and psychedelia. “Stankonia was like Dre channeling [Jimi] Hendrix,” Organized Noize member and Stankonia featured vocalist Sleepy Brown says of André 3000, who would later play Hendrix in the 2014 biopic Jimi: All Is by My Side.
The album’s rave-influenced first single, “B.O.B.,” never reached the Hot 100 but has since been embraced as ahead of its time, with Pitchfork naming it the best song of the 2000s. Second single “Ms. Jackson” — paying respect to children born out of wedlock and partly inspired by André 3000’s relationship with singer Erykah Badu — became the first Outkast tune to top the Hot 100. They also had a hit with the third Stankonia single, “So Fresh, So Clean.”
LaFace and Arista released Stankonia on Oct. 31, 2000, and it peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 before being certified five-times platinum. It earned Outkast its first-ever Grammys, including best rap album and best group rap performance for “Ms. Jackson.”
Stankonia is set for rerelease timed to the 25th anniversary and continues to earn praise, with Rolling Stone ranking it No. 64 on its 2020 list of the best albums ever. Outkast found continued success with 2003’s double album Speakerboxxx/The Love Below but haven’t released new music as a group in nearly two decades. They are part of this year’s class for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, with their induction ceremony set for Nov. 8.
CeeLo Green, who has known André 3000 since childhood and performed on Stankonia, echoes the sentiment of many fans: “I would love new Outkast music to come because everybody would rally around it and really celebrate it.”
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This story appeared in the Oct. 1 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
