Puttin' Some Stank On It

11/30/2000 10:00 PM, LAUNCH
Billy Johnson Jr

Consistently, OutKast has been able to prove hip-hop's current formula for success wrong. While the average rapper capitalizes on perpetuating trends, only a few artists actually go the distance and try something new. When OutKast debuted in 1994 with its instant classic Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, the debut single "Player's Ball" branded the group's Atlanta hometown a place to watch. In the six years since, André and Big Boi have yet to disappoint, issuing a string of even more intoxicating albums, including 1996's ATLiens and 1998's Aquemini, the latter of which earned a perfect rating in The Source magazine. With its latest release, Stankonia, the duo brings the title to life, ushering an eclectic blend of funk-inspired hip-hop that compares only to Parliament-Funkadelic frontman George Clinton.

While on the set for their video "Ms. Jackson," a funky ode to their babies' mamas' mamas, André and Big Boi discuss babymamadrama, funk music, Macy Gray's use of their song "Git Up Git Out," and the pressures to create yet another perfect album.

LAUNCH:
André, since you and Erykah Badu have a child, when people hear "Ms. Jackson," they're immediately going to think about you and Erykah. Was the song based on any of the stuff you guys have been through?

ANDRÉ:
Yeah, it's kinda like a personal song, but then at the same time, it's not like a real-life story like that. But it's kinda coming from me, wondering, like, after the pain of a relationship, after things don't work out too tough, I wonder how a baby's mama's mama feels. Like, how do they feel about you? 'Cause in the beginning, they love you, you really the best thing on the planet--and then after it happens, you kinda feel kinda odd a little bit. And that's what inspired the song.

LAUNCH:
I think it was big of you guys to say, "I'm sorry." Most of the time when problems get started in relationships, it's hard to come back and say you're sorry.

BIG BOI:
It's just real. Everybody don't feel hatred toward the baby's mom's mother or the baby's mom, period. But it's just almost like a truce, in a way. Like I did my part, you did your part, and we could part on good terms, or if you want to be mad at me, I ain't going to be mad at you. Just that's the way it went down.

LAUNCH:
How did you come up with the title Stankonia?

BIG BOI:
Actually, Stankonia is the place were all the funkness comes from, and we just so happened to tap into that, and it was just like a word. We are going to have to put out a slang dictionary, 'cause we use so many slang terms, that people that understand them catch them, and if you don't really just listen, it'll go right over your heads. It's real melodic. A lot, lot of instrumentation. Stankonia is just the funkiest place on the earth. Not on the earth--in space, where you want to go to, center of the earth, where you got to go to pull that funk out. That's what we did.

ANDRÉ:
This is definitely one of the first official funk albums of 2000. Stankonia, it is a funky place. A place from where all funky thangs come, and we trying to take people to Stankonia, which is kinda like a deeper place than what's on the surface, 'cause right now most of the hip-hop you're hearing on the radio is surface hip-hop. It's kinda like a comfortable-type hip-hop that's going on. We're just trying to take it another direction. So we trying to take people with us to Stankonia. It's a freedom place. Not freedom like, "free at last, great God almighty, free at last," but free as mind free, musically free.

LAUNCH:
How do you determine which experiences you're going to draw from when making songs?

ANDRÉ:
It starts off personal, always. And then sometimes, we get into songs where I see someone else in the situation, like being a news reporter, just reporting and trying to feel what somebody else feel. Lately, I've been trying to do this--like with everybody I meet and shake hands with, I try to kinda, like, visualize myself like, taking they problems, like, coming into me, so I can kinda like understand them, so I can get some more inspiration to write some more songs. It's been helping, 'cause I can kinda like, see someone on the side of the road catching the bus, and I can kinda like, see they whole life, almost. I can write about that 'cause first albums for most hip-hop artists, they're the best ones. I wouldn't say the best ones, but the most intense, because they're in that element. I can't act like I'm still in the street, still in the ghetto and all that there. I'm 25 years old and got kids, and things ain't the same. I get my inspiration from somewhere else, and I just try to get my inspiration from creativity more than anything.

LAUNCH:
Is there anything on this album that you wrote from that perspective?

ANDRÉ:
Yeah, songs like "Speed Ballin'." My mom told me that one of my partners I grew up with, his little brother got shot, and he got shot out there slangin' dope and all that type of stuff right there, and he was maybe like, 15 or 14 or something like that. Just thinking about that, what causes youngsters of that age to go out there and do that when you got all this propaganda, you got all these people saying, "Don't sell dope or you know the causes if you sell dope, you may die," and stuff like that. It comes from youngstas wanting what they see people have, and like, in the hood, you say, "I want to be balling. I want to ball with all the big ballers." So when you really trying to ball, like, when you're really speed balling, that means you're like, balling out of control, or doing anything in your power to get to that level. That's when you're really going fast. And the first line of that song is "Living by the grace of God/At the pace of the devil/Life is hard/We speed ballin'." So that's kinda like, saying what the youth is going through right now.

BIG BOI:
With all of our albums, we just talk about everyday life, and give our perspective on our walks of life or how we live every day. We have songs like "Gasoline Dreams" about the youth and how the whole American dream thing, like the youth. Everybody think they going crazy, but they really just want to be heard. And then the whole song is like, all your dreams is really like going up in flames. We have "So Fresh, So Clean": laid-back, riding, pimp joint. Songs like "Red Velvet" on the album--that particular cut is about really the state of hip-hop, and it's all about money. "I got all this cake. I got all the cheese." Or from our perspective, got all this cake--well, it's some boys out here that'll turn your pound cake into red velvet, will straight splash you up, and then what you gone have? The album is deep.

LAUNCH:
Is there a meaning behind the black and white American flag on the album cover?

ANDRÉ:
The way I see it, the youth is kinda like, dead. The black and white represents the deadness of America. So we're just trying to crank it.

LAUNCH:
Is this your way of making a political statement about the elections?

ANDRÉ:
If we say, "OK, Gore's the one for the hood"--hey, we can make a difference like that. It may not be the best choice in the world, but we have to make some kind of a choice.

LAUNCH:
How did you feel about Macy Gray using your song "Git Up, Git Out," from Southernplayalisticadillacmuzic, for her song "Do Somethin'"?

BIG BOI:
Well, they brought it to us first before it came out. We were like, "Cool." But the only thing is, like, all the interviews, even on the Grammys, on MTV, wherever she was, she ever gave us no props for the original song. Everybody in the world knew it who knew our song, but a lot of her fans didn't know that she got that from us. A lot of people were asking us, ''As far as 'Git Up, Git Out,' did you do it first, or did she do it first?'' Southernplayalistic came out back in '94. That's why we ain't going on tour with her ass [laughs]. But it ain't like it's no beef or nothing like that. Just give props where props are due.

LAUNCH:
Aquemini got five mics in The Source. Did that put any pressure on you guys when making Stankonia?

ANDRÉ:
It most definitely put a little guy inside of your head, saying, "I wonder what people are going to expect from us next?" But at the same time, we just with the same formula that we always do--just going into the studio and really taking the approach like little babies, like we never done it before, and just come from different angles and make up new songs, and just put it out there and just pray that the people connect with it. That's what it's all about. You could be the dopest MC, or the dopest producer, the dopest musician in the world, but if it really don't connect with the people, it really don't matter if you're really dope in your own world.

BIG BOI:
This album to me, in my heart, I know this album deserves...I've been looking at the ratings and everything. They have to raise them. They have to give us seven mics, or six. They got to take it up to five and a half or something, 'cause for everything that I've been seeing for four and four and a half, it's been the same repetitious material that's been going on and on for years. And they're not sparking anything new.