All Outkast albums sound like nothing else in the music space. Stankonia, named after the studio they had recently acquired from Bobby Brown, was their moment of proof. DJ) were getting creative ideas executed into fully-produced songs. The ATL trio had mentored Outkast and established the Dungeon. The seemingly major distinction between Outkast in 1998 and in 2000 was Organized Noize. He explained how it’s treated as “Very carefully. Andre 3000 weighted the significance of following up Aquemini. While past efforts may have been treated too lightly, or eclipsed by antics and pageantry, Stankonia was something different. That comment speaks to six years of extreme creativity, bucking the trends, and trying to give listeners something for their mind and their backbone. We come to put heat in the game so everybody could jump onto somethin’ new, and get motivated to something real, original, and positive-’cause that’s how we like to make our music.” We ain’t doin’ nothin’ nobody else is doin’ out there on the street. In newly-released MTV footage from 2000 (above), Daddy Fat Sax said it clearly: “We gonna give it to you like Outkast give it to you every time: and that’s raw, uncut, and brand new. Stankonia was a statement album for Big and Dre. The world, or those holding the spotlights, finally realized that the Dungeon may be the most interesting lair in music, as Outkast made an album that reached several generations. In a year that desperately sought out new narratives, booming beats, and the complete package, ‘Kast’s fourth album collected big.
Thus, Outkast’s Stankonia came at the perfect time-although there truly is no clock for music like this. The multi-platinum status maintained, but somehow 3 Stacks and Daddy Fat Sax were perceived as the other at a time when mainstream Hip-Hop appeared to be holding “Star Search” for who could command attention quite like Tupac or Biggie. Never seeking approval, or validation, the group pushed on with high potency lyrics, rhythms, and messages in Hip-Hop. The album was subtle, at a time when brash was winning.īy Aquemini, it almost appeared as if Outkast no longer cared where the props came from. In a 1996 that was big on overt sample-driven music, and over the top productions, ‘Kast launched into orbit with only creativity powering their space ship. At an event when two humble MCs from East Point, Atlanta and Decatur, Georgia were supposed to open up a new conversation in Rap geography, they were booed.Ī year to the month after the jeering and cold shoulders at Madison Square Garden’s Paramount Theater, Outkast did it again, courtesy of ATLiens. Their incredible debut album, 1994’s Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik won big at the following Source Awards- but it’s one of the least talked about items of that fateful Augnight. Headlines eclipsed art for the first time in Rap’s 20 year mainstream history. Hip-Hop as a whole seemed to realize how the actions of a select few had pulled the plug on the colorful music. As the whole world saw the changes that came with a new millennium, the culture used the newness of things to seemingly reset from the troubling actions, tones, and violent mistakes of the late 1990s.
Year 2000 was forced to be big in Hip-Hop.