Legendary Atlanta rap duo OutKast was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on Saturday, Nov. 8. André 3000 and Big Boi’s impact on how stories can be told in hip-hop — and the soundscape of funk, soul, and rock their narratives were set against — has made them one of music’s most influential acts. Their lasting impact took centerstage at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles as Doja Cat, Killer Mike, J.I.D, Tyler, the Creator, Janelle Monáe and Sleepy Brown joined Big Boi for a medley of the duo’s greatest hits.
Big Boi, the rapper born Antwan André Patton, began Outkast‘s acceptance speech, after the pair determined who would speak first with three rounds of rock-paper-scissors live on stage. Later, as André 3000 thanked friends and family from Atlanta to Savannah, the stage slowly filled with men (and a small child) representing the Dungeon Family music collective that spurred Outkast’s success, starting in the basement of a house belonging to the mother of late Organized Noize producer Rico Wade.
“A lot of times it’s a lot more than just the notes or the instruments that you playing,” said André 3000 during his lengthy, off-the-cuff remarks. “It’s everybody that’s around you. It’s the family, and this is my family.”
“It’s the wives, it’s the girlfriends, it’s the girl you broke up with that pissed you off and made you write a song,” André continued. “All of that is important … It has a lot to do with the bands that were out at the same time that influenced us, all the rappers that were out, from Busta Rhymes to Missy [Elliot] to Nas to Wu-Tang and then even before, we got Kilo [Ali], we got Raheem the Dream. We were watching dancers in Atlanta. Those were our heroes growing up.”
In the middle of the deep intimacy of his speech, during which Big Boi lovingly pulled fur from his fluffy coat out out of André’s beard, the flute-playing OutKast member fought back tears while referencing fellow 2025 inductee Jack White. “Man, he’s one of my favorites. Man, we love you … He said something about little rooms, and we started…” André 3000 said before choking up. “Great things start in little rooms.”
With that, Big Boi and the newly Grammy-nominated Atlanta rapper J.I.D. opened the set with “ATLiens” before tossing it over to Doja Cat for “Ms. Jackson.” Doja sang André 3000’s bridge before breaking into a choppy performance of his rap verse, but Tyler, the Creator picked it up from there, bursting onto the stage with “B.O.B. (Bombs Over Baghdad).” Fittingly, Janelle Monáe was assigned the true-classic single “Hey Ya!” Monae blazed through the song with some theatrical support from a crew of dancers. André 3000 did not perform.
Ushered in by the iconic brass riff from “SpottieOttieDopaliscious,” Big Boi then teamed up with Sleepy Brown for the hit collaboration “The Way You Move,” brought to life with an electrifying 12-piece band. For the final song in the set, Killer Mike joined Doja Cat, J.I.D., Tyler, the Creator, Sleepy Brown, Monáe and Big Boi for “The Whole World.”
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OutKast received a sprawling introduction from Donald Glover, who grew up listening to OutKast in Atlanta before infusing the group’s influence into his work as Childish Gambino. “Big Boi and André, I want to personally, thank you. Around the time Speakerboxxx/The Love Below came out, I wrote a letter from college to my brother, and I said, ‘I had a dream that we wrote a show together,’” said Glover, foreshadowing his hit show Atlanta. “Thank you for showing me that brothers may not always see eye to eye and their philosophies or styles, but they need each other in a world that would rather see them both fail together. … Atlanta is not the music Mecca it has become without you. There is no Childish Gambino without you. There is no South without you.”
OutKast made it onto the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame ballot for the first time this year, though they’ve been eligible since 2019. Their debut album Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik arrived in 1994, the start of an unrivaled run of records that included ATLiens, Aquemini, Stankonia, and Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. OutKast won Album of the Year at the Grammy Awards in 2004 for Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. No rap album has been presented with the honor since.
OutKast joins the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame class of 2025 alongside Cyndi Lauper, Bad Company, Chubby Checker, Joe Cocker, Soundgarden, and the White Stripes.
From Rolling Stone US
