Twenty-five years ago, Outkast created a perfect hip hop composition with the release of Aquemini. The album represents how two opposite worlds, in personality, can create genius art in unison.
First Roots
Andre โ3000โ Benjamin and Antwan โBig Boiโ Patton met in a neighborhood mall in Atlanta, Georgia, at age sixteen. They formed an instant friendship. After discovering their shared love for rhyming, the two became a rap duo, showcasing their skills everywhere from local talent shows to high school cafeteria lunch tables. Fate shined their way when they met the soon-to-be legendary production team, Organized Noize, who had recently worked with R&B group TLC. The meeting led to an introduction to L.A. Reid, CEO of LaFace Records. After Reid put the young rappers through artist development, he allowed the duo to debut on the album A LaFace Family Christmas. At first, Andre and Big Boi resisted making a Christmas recordโuntil they figured out how to put their twist on it. Hence, โPlayerโs Ballโ was born.
โPlayerโs Ballโ opened doors for a young Outkast as they rhymed about lowriding in the South with a video directed by a young Sean โPuffโ Combs. The song served as a lead single for the debut album Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, where Andre and Big Boi exchange rhymes as rap twins born from the same mic. Songs such as โAinโt No Thangโ, the albumโs title track, and the inspirational โGit Up, Git Outโ earned them commercial and almost critical success.
All Love, All Disrespect
In 1995, Outkastโs cold reception at the Source Awards put a proverbial battery in their backs. At the event, the duo received โboosโ from the audience once it was announced that they had won the award for Best New Artist. The experience became inspiration for a second album, and their acceptance speech was immortalized when a frustrated Andre 3000 said, โIt’s like this tho, THE SOUTH GOT SOMETHING TO SAY!โ
Outkast, feeling the effects from those infamous booโs and โclosed-minded folks”, named their sophomore album ATLiens. This second effort showed their musical growth and visually illustrated the differences in their personalities. Gone were the days of matching Atlanta Braves jerseys; in their music video for โElevatorsโ, Andre wears a turban while Big Boi sports full pimp gear in a suit and tie. Songs like โWheelz of Steelโ, โJazzy Belleโ, and โBabylonโ demonstrated the duo departing from their shared rhyme style and separately evolving into their own introspective raps.
The Imperfect Perfect Time
With two masterful works in their catalog, fans wondered if the group had a future. Rumors of a breakup began to circulate due to: 1) Andreโs ultra-rainbow attire and 2) history has shown that the lifespan of the average hip hop group is short. So, when Aquemini was announced as the next Outkast album, fans were excited but still needed clarification on what to expectโuntil the lead single.
As a lead single, the music video for โRosa Parksโ was a perfect reintroduction to who Outkast as artists had become. Where before the two MCs mightโve been ATLiens to the world, they now looked foreign to each other. There was Andre 3000, shirtless, dressed in football pads and fury, multi-colored pants, rapping about being stimulated by gypsies. Big Boi looked like a D-Boy fresh from Freaknik, rhyming about doing donuts outside a strip club. On the surface, the two looked planets apart yet rapped as one, which, according to Andre, would be the albumโs theme. โAquemini was like a blending of both of the signs, the Aquarius and the Geminiโ said Andre, โLike letting people know that, like two totally different worlds can come together and make this music.โ
The Rhythm and Rhyme
The Aquemini album starts off preparing you for a tripped-out ride twelve seconds into the first track, โHold On, Be Strong.โ The repeated whisper of the title with haunting background guitar, strings, and bell sounds, act as verbal seatbelts for a psychedelic version of hip hop that had never existed. First was an unimaginable team-up. Wu-Tang Clanโs Raekwon the chef appears on โSkew It on The Bar-Bโ, blending his Staten Island, crack-recipe rhymes with the two Georgia boys who a few years prior received jeers in Raekwonโs hometown.
The growth of Outkast shines in the musical production of Aquemini. In the past, Andre and Big Boiโs rhymes relied heavily on the sounds created by Organized Noize. But for this album, Outkast produced most of their own beats. Songs like โSlumpโ, a dope-boy country jam, and โLiberationโ, a classic protest record, represented both artists as different voices with the same vision.
The elevation of Big Boi and Andreโs MCโism is flawless in โDa Art of Storytellinโ Pt.1.โ The duoโs storytelling breathes so much life into the characters mentioned in their verses that itโs hard not to feel a moment of guilt for Suzy Skrew or an emotional R.I.P. for Sasha Thumper.
Da Art of Perfection
Aquemini the album accomplished platinum status within a month of its release and double platinum two months afterward. Yet, the full-circle moment was when The Source magazine, whose award show left a bitter taste with Outkast years before, gave the group its most sacred award, a five-mic classic rating for Aquemini.
Outkast, as a group, is legend, but the artistic work of Aquemini makes them the greatest duo in hip hop history. Never beforeโand so far, never againโhad extreme opposing personalities created and perfected a musical blend of lyricism and production delivered as one. From the โsmoking wordโ genius of โSpottieOttieDopealiisciiousโ to the rockstar performance of โChonkyfireโ, each song is as innovative as it is true to its craft. Andre and Big Boi took an outer-space approach to the albumโs development, and the result was a timeless body of work.
Aquemini is a musical masterpiece that pushed hip hop beyond its comfort zone and is responsible for the genreโs growth from the Bronx to Atlanta to worldwide.
