50 Fun Facts About OutKast

At which Atlanta shopping mall did the two future members of OutKast first meet as teenagers?

Lenox Square was a chance meeting for the two 16-year-olds; back at school they tried to out-rhyme each other in cafeteria battles before deciding to join forces.

What is Big Boi's real name?

Antwan Patton, the oldest of five children, has André as a middle name, the same as his partner's first name; away from music he breeds pit bulls.

What did OutKast first call themselves before a similarly named singing group forced a change?

2 Shades Deep had to go because of a singing group called 4 Shades Deep; the new name fitted two teenagers whose clothes already made them feel like outcasts at school.

OutKast's first recorded appearance came on a 1992 remix for which R&B group, their labelmates?

TLC's 'What About Your Friends' was the song: the producers had two unknown teenagers rap on the remix, and it helped win the pair a record deal of their own.

Which production trio produced every track on OutKast's debut album?

Organized Noize worked out of Rico Wade's unfinished basement, known as the Dungeon, the room that gave the wider Dungeon Family collective its name.

OutKast were the first hip hop act signed to which Atlanta label, home of Toni Braxton and Usher?

LaFace Records, named for founders L.A. Reid and Babyface, had been a pop and R&B house until Reid signed the two rappers when both were 17.

What was OutKast's first single, released in 1993, which topped the Hot Rap Tracks chart?

Player's Ball began as a Christmas single, an idea label boss L.A. Reid admits was never supposed to work; it spent six weeks on top of the rap chart.

Which Atlanta rap group guests on OutKast's 1994 debut album?

Goodie Mob, with a young CeeLo Green, join in on 'Git Up, Git Out', a call to stop getting high and get moving; one fan told Big Boi it got him to class and through college.

At which 1995 ceremony did OutKast's André declare, to boos, that 'the South got something to say'?

The Source Awards crowd in New York, caught up in the East Coast-West Coast feud, jeered the Atlanta newcomers' win; the retort is now remembered as the moment rap turned south.

OutKast's 1996 second album, with a dub-influenced sound, was titled what?

ATLiens followed a platinum debut that won them more creative control: for the first time the pair produced songs themselves, recasting themselves as space-age outsiders.

What production company did OutKast set up to make their own beats?

Earthtone III was the three of them as producers: under that name André, Big Boi and Mr. DJ could make their own beats, 'B.O.B.' among them, without hiring outside help.

Which OutKast album includes the horn-led 'SpottieOttieDopaliscious'?

Aquemini joins Big Boi's Aquarius to André's Gemini, and the album leans on how unlike the two partners are, billed in those years as 'the player' and 'the poet'.

Which civil-rights icon sued OutKast in 1999 over a song bearing her name?

Rosa Parks objected that the single traded on her name while its lyrics never mention her; the chorus only nods to her with a line about moving to the back of the bus.

Which celebrated attorney argued the civil-rights icon's 2001 appeal in her lawsuit against OutKast?

Johnnie Cochran, famous for defending O.J. Simpson, came in after a judge had thrown the suit out; in 2003 the appeals court revived part of the case.

Whose 1999 US tour did OutKast open for while promoting Aquemini?

Lauryn Hill led the 1999 Grammy field with ten nominations when the American leg of her tour opened in Detroit that February; OutKast warmed up her crowds with a live band.

Which Stankonia single became OutKast's first No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100?

Ms. Jackson started as an acoustic guitar song André was playing at home; reworked for the album, it carried the duo to the top of the pop chart for the first time.

What does the 'B.O.B.' in the title of Stankonia's first single stand for?

Bombs Over Baghdad struggled for radio play in 2000, then came back in 2003 as an unofficial Iraq war anthem, a reading its writers never intended.

OutKast's 'Ms. Jackson' was inspired by André's breakup with which singer?

Erykah Badu says her mother, the real Ms. Jackson, loved the sung apology so much that she bought herself a 'Ms. Jackson' licence plate, mug and headband.

Which company answered OutKast's 'Hey Ya!' by warning customers against shaking its pictures?

Polaroid pointed out that its modern film dries behind a clear plastic window, so shaking does nothing and can even damage the picture.

Which rapper debuted on OutKast's 'Snappin' & Trappin'' and later joined them on the Grammy-winning 'The Whole World'?

Killer Mike was unknown when he recorded that one verse in 2000; it won him a deal with the duo's own label soon after.

In 2023 OutKast's Speakerboxxx/The Love Below passed which album as hip hop's highest-certified ever?

The Eminem Show had gone 12 times platinum the year before; a fresh count for the Atlanta duo's 20th anniversary, streams included, put their set on 13.

Which OutKast single replaced 'Hey Ya!' atop the Hot 100?

The Way You Move, Big Boi's own single from the same release, took over for a week in February 2004; few acts have ever replaced themselves at the top of the chart.

In OutKast's 'Hey Ya!' video, André plays every member of a band restaging whose Ed Sullivan Show debut?

The Beatles' 1964 arrival is turned around: in the video an American band invades England and sets British fans screaming.

OutKast's 'Hey Ya!' was the No. 1 song on the last weekend of American Top 40 hosted by whom?

Casey Kasem had co-created the countdown in 1970; when he handed over in January 2004, Ryan Seacrest's first show a week later had the same song on top.

The video for OutKast's 'Roses' is a modern retelling of which classic musical?

West Side Story: André's Love Below gang and Big Boi's Speakerboxxx crew stand in for the Jets and Sharks, brawling in a school auditorium over a girl called Caroline.

OutKast's Speakerboxxx/The Love Below won which Grammy at the 2004 ceremony?

Album of the Year was the night's last award; André then closed the show with 'Hey Ya!' in feathers and war paint, and CBS apologised to offended Native Americans days later.

OutKast's Speakerboxxx/The Love Below was certified diamond in 2004 partly because of what RIAA rule?

Double-album sales count double: the RIAA tallies each disc of a long two-disc set as a unit, so about five million copies were enough for a ten-million diamond award.

OutKast's 2006 musical film Idlewild was set in which era?

Prohibition drives the plot: André's shy pianist and Big Boi's showman fight to keep their speakeasy, a club called Church, out of the hands of gangsters.

OutKast's Idlewild single 'Morris Brown' takes its name from what?

An Atlanta college, Morris Brown, lent the single more than a name: the school's marching band plays on it, tubas and trombones carrying the beat.

OutKast's 2006 single 'Mighty O' borrows its hook from which Cab Calloway song?

Minnie the Moocher, Calloway's famous crowd sing-along, is credited on the single, so the swing-era bandleader shares a songwriting credit with OutKast.

Big Boi's long-delayed 2010 solo debut, Sir Lucious Left Foot, carried what subtitle?

Its promo single 'Royal Flush' featured Raekwon and André 3000; the follow-up became Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors.

André 3000 played which musician in the 2014 biopic All Is by My Side?

Jimi Hendrix's own songs are missing from the film: his estate controls them and took no part, so André performs covers from the guitarist's London days instead.

André 3000's 2023 solo debut, New Blue Sun, has no rapping and features him mainly on which instrument?

Flute fills the 87-minute album: André said that at 48 rapping felt inauthentic to him, because he had nothing he wanted to rap about.

OutKast's 2014 reunion tour opened at which festival?

Coachella saw their first show together in years, the start of a run of more than 40 festivals; it ended abruptly at 1 a.m. when the microphones were switched off.

Big Boi released the 2015 EP Big Grams in collaboration with which electronic act?

Phantogram had guested on his 2012 solo album first; the joint project that grew out of it was, Big Boi joked, 'the grams you can't snort'.

André 3000 featured on 'Pink Matter' from which Frank Ocean album?

Channel Orange nearly reunited the duo: Big Boi says he was invited onto the song too, but André did not want an OutKast record coming out on someone else's album.

OutKast contributed 'Land of a Million Drums' to the soundtrack of which 2002 film?

Scooby-Doo's soundtrack led with the song; in the video Big Boi drives a customised Mystery Machine and a Scooby Snack thief dressed as Shaggy is unmasked.

Who inducted OutKast into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2025?

Donald Glover grew up just outside Atlanta, and in 2014 he had been one of the opening acts at the duo's homecoming concerts under his rap name, Childish Gambino.

Big Boi guest-starred as hip hop artist 'Got$ Money' in a 2008 episode of which TV series?

Law & Order: SVU cast him in the episode 'Wildlife' as an insider who helps Detective Stabler go undercover inside an animal-smuggling ring.

Which singer sampled OutKast's 'Git Up Git Out' for her 1999 debut single 'Do Something'?

Macy Gray's borrowing put André and Big Boi among the credited writers of her first single, released a few months before 'I Try' made her a star.

OutKast's Big Boi and André were classmates at which Atlanta-area high school?

Tri-Cities, in East Point, is geared to the performing arts; the two teamed up there as tenth-graders, and André left after his junior year to chase a career in music.

OutKast's Big Boi was born and spent his early childhood in which Georgia city?

Savannah was his first home, and he kept it in the story: years after moving to Atlanta he put a track called 'West Savannah' on an OutKast album.

Which self-produced ATLiens single took OutKast to No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100?

Elevators (Me & You) was the first song the two made for the album without their usual producers; it out-charted everything on their debut and stayed their biggest hit until 2000.

On a trip to which country did OutKast's André decide to grow out his hair for a more natural look?

Jamaica changed more than his hair: taken with the dreadlocks he saw there, he began growing his own, and in the same years he turned vegetarian and gave up marijuana.

Which Dungeon Family singer is the featured vocalist on OutKast's 'The Way You Move'?

Sleepy Brown, one of the three producers behind the duo's first record and a regular voice on their songs, supplies the chorus that drives this one.

OutKast's André 3000 voiced a crow in a 2006 screen version of which 1952 children's book?

Charlotte's Web cast him as Elwyn, one of its two crows; years earlier, he recalls, his first stage role, in a seventh-grade drama club, had been Avery in the same story.

André 3000 played the recurring character Robert Huggins on which FX police drama?

The Shield introduced Huggins in 2004, then brought him back four years later, in its series finale, as a candidate for mayor.

What hashtag branded OutKast's September 2014 homecoming concerts?

#ATLast was the homecoming: after months of festival dates everywhere but their own city, the duo came back for a weekend of shows in Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park.

The 2012 Gorillaz single 'DoYaThing', with OutKast's André 3000, was a free download promoting which brand?

Converse commissioned it for a series that put three artists on one song; the deal had begun with Gorillaz designing a line of the brand's trainers.

Which funk pioneer collaborated with OutKast on their 1998 third album?

George Clinton, leader of Parliament-Funkadelic, guests on the track 'Synthesizer'; six years later he shared a stage with Big Boi in a funk tribute at the Grammys.