“Right now, it’s 1999, it’s time to get extreme,” André 3000 says, using the word “boring” to describe how formulaic mainstream rap had become. Undoubtedly, OutKast at their most extreme.įollowing the ’98 release of Aquemini and receiving a historic five-mic review in ’90s hip-hop bible The Source Magazine, OutKast were interviewed by Joe Clair on BET’s defunct hip-hop show Rap City. Every second detonates with explosive verses, earworm hooks, and barrier-breaking production.
The stillness of their stances fails to encapsulate how the 24-song, 74-minute magnum opus doesn’t stop moving. Unlike the cover art for their 1998 third studio album, Aquemini, which reimagined the two rap stars as radiant mystics, Stankonia strips away vibrancy and comic book illustration for subtle imagery. André, who stands upright, has no shirt, posing with his mouth slightly ajar, arms stretched forward, and fingers spread wide as if a pianist or puppeteer.īehind them, in a monochrome shade of black and white, is an inverted American flag. Big Boi, who stands with a lean, wears a plain white T-shirt, a diamond-encrusted ‘DF’ necklace, and the mug of a man who reveals nothing, not even his teeth. Atlanta rappers Antwan “Big Boi” Patton and André “André 3000” Benjamin, best known as the Southern hip-hop duo OutKast, did not appear as disruptors of reality, or deities of pop culture on the cover of their fourth studio album, Stankonia.