#361 - OutKast - Stankonia (2000)
MUSIC HISTORY WRITTEN BY HEAD WRITER DJ MORTY COYLE:
Released on October 31st of 2000 on LaFace and Arista Records and produced by Earthtone III, Organized Noize and Carl Mo this is the fourth studio album by the Atlanta, Georgia, Southern Hip Hop duo.
East Point, Atlanta, Georgia, Tri-Cities high school students, and aspiring rappers André Benjamin and Antwan Patton met at the Lenox Square shopping mall in 1992 when both were 16 years old.
While still participating in high school rap battles the two formed a duo that caught the attention of local production team Organized Noize, who we talked about on the TLC episode.
André dropped his last name and Antwan adopted the nickname Big Boi, and after trying a few group names including The Misfits and 2 Shades Deep they became Outkast.
They, along with Organized Noize and slightly older, local, rap, group Goodie Mob (that featured another schoolfriend, CeeLo Green), formed the Atlanta-based Hip Hop and R&B collective, the Dungeon Family, named for the basement, home, studio where they all made their earliest recordings.
Before even graduating high school Outkast were the first Hip Hop act signed by Babyface and L.A. Reid to their nascent LaFace label and made their debut appearance on a remix for label-mates TLC.
Soon their own debut (heavily featuring The Dungeon Family) was released to critical and commercial acclaim, platinum-status, and a #1 single on both the Rap and R&B charts.
With Outkast’s mainstream success The Dungeon Family’s aesthetic mix of rap with heavy Funk, Soul, and R&B influences essentially established the new sound of Southern Hip Hop with Atlanta taking over from Houston and Miami as the epicenter of the movement.
Prior to the early to mid-‘90s the Rap and Hip Hop industry was caught up in the excitement and money generated by the East Coast and West Coast feuds while paying less serious attention to the momentum building in the South via DIY mixtapes and independent releases.
That changed after Outkast won Best New Rap Artist at the 1995 Source Awards where, amidst a flurry of boos, André accepted by saying, "But it's like this though, I'm tired of them closed minded folks, it's like we gotta demo tape but don't nobody want to hear it. But it's like this: the South got something to say, that's all I got to say."
Each successive Outkast album allowed them the creative freedom to build on their willingness to explore new musical terrain and inventive production techniques while also evolving in their lyrical content and honing their unique voices, styles, and images.
And that ability to expand their minds was reflected in their growing success.
After André and Big Boi partnered with David "Mr. DJ" Sheats to form the Earthtone III production company to produce their own tracks in 1998 they bought Bobby Brown’s old studio which they renamed Stankonia.
Following three previous portmanteau album titles this combination of “stank” as in “funky”-goodness and the mythical, futuristic world André saw on a fractal poster he had up in his room, “Plutonia” was explained by André as, "Stankonia is this place I imagined where you can open yourself up and be free to express anything".
And with a new sound they described as “Slumadelic” they spent most of the following year in Stankonia recording this album which was originally titled, “Sandbox”.
Big Boi and the newly self-christened André 3000 covered a range of lyrical subjects from their individual perspectives including personal introspection, politics, the current Black experience and culture, parenthood, the state of Hip-Hop, and comparatively unique views on women that elevated them from just being one-dimensional, video-eye-candy and sex-toys.
They also made a concerted effort to appeal to a wider audience and lighten the mood of their previous albums and in that they found the perfect combination of popularity and respect.
“Stankonia” debuted at #2 on the Billboard 200, its videos were in heavy rotation on MTV, it eventually went quadruple platinum, got them their first #1 as well as The Grammy for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group, and also won them The Grammy for Best Rap Album.
They followed this with the wildly popular double album, “Speakerboxxx/The Love Below” a few years later and then “Idlewild”, the soundtrack to their movie which was their sixth and final album to date before taking a seven year hiatus.
Both Big Boi and André 3000 remained active in music individually and occasionally collectively as well as branching into T.V. and movies.
They’ve won multiple awards including four more Grammys and have sold over 25 million records.