I said, 'Okay, I'ma get this bird right here, so could you pack it up for me? I'll be back! I come back, and the bird is still in the cage. The peole in there were cool, they were real nice, and I picked out a bird.
"I was buying my son a bird last weekend, at this redneck flea market in South Atlanta. The MTV generation has affected Big Boi's personal universe too. And I'm thinking the best that I can do is not. "I've gotten way too critical of my own work," he says later. I realized, Hey, I don't like this and this is not healthy for me. There's nothing wrong with that, but I've just never fit into that. All the stuff you have to do, all the meetin' and greetin' people and being friendly and being, you know, chipper and all that type of shit. Throughout the day, he kept using the word entartainer. Georgia, a city that until very recently still flew a Confederate flag at its capitol. Once you're on TRL, all of a sudden you're a household name." This from a man who along with his partner is responsible for introducing the world to Atlanta. I think I'm ready to quit "ĪYour fan base has expanded crazily! "That was all MTV," he said quietly. Mostly bad, though, this time around, at least for the fans. One of the first things he said to me when we met in late June of this year to talk about Speakerboxx/The Love Below, the Outkast double record soon to be released, was, “You know how it is right before an album comes out- it's good and it's bad. We have remained friends, close and not close at the same time, the way you sustain a friendship when suddenly both people have wildly different schedules to be truthful, our friendship is almost completely unrelated to Outkast, leaving me with insight into Andre Benjamin the individual but not so much into Andre 3000, one half of the group.
at a bookstore, nine months before the release of Stankonia. I don't like the clothes, really, and I think we could be doing better things, but at the same I see that Outkast Clothing is never gonna be more than just an urban clothing company."Īndre Benjamin and I met in January 2000. I've never worn 'em, maybe once or twice.
Andre says, "Outkast Clothing-I think it makes money, but I don't even wear the clothes. Ironic, though, that over time those extra seeds they planted have been siphoning off control to other places.
OUTKAST STANKONIA PHOTOSHOOT PC
Two “grown-ass men" now, as they each say, both with little children and the responsibilities of what middle America calls 'extended families,' now with more financial ventures in their name than one can count-the standard hip-hop-stability-and-opportunity-for-life-(well, maybe)-outlets that are the urban clothing company and the record label and the production companies, plus the dog-breeding and art-peddling and a fucking internet service that will give you not one but three email addresses ending in '' for $21.95 a month (plus customized Outkast desktop wallpaper for your PC or Mac).įor Big Boi and Andre, who are at any moment either young dudes still or grown-ass men, all that shit is necessary, to expand and secure their net worth, to support their families and their ideas, to foot the bill that will allow them to continue to make their original music.