Return Of The ‘G’: OutKast’s Aquemini at 25
Looking back at a sprawling, exhilarating rap tour de force
While the East Coast/West Coast rivalry heated up to a boiling point between Bad Boy and Death Row Records at the 1995 Source Awards, another critical moment went down in tandem.
After an upset victory for Best New Rap Group, OutKast took to the stage to a chorus of boos, but André 3000 wasn’t having it: “The South’s got something to say, that’s all I got to say,” he told the crowd. He wasn’t talking about himself or his group or even his hometown of Atlanta – he was throwing down for a whole region of the country, demanding that there was something important happening beyond the bi-coastal feud. And he was right. And he was about to prove it, even more than he’d done before.
Only three years earlier, Dre (André Benjamin) and his school buddy Big Boi (Antwan Patton) were still teenagers when they teamed up as OutKast, catching the attention of local production trio Organized Noize, who roped them into their crew of artists, the Dungeon Family, which also included Goodie Mob among others. Tapped for a holiday album song, the duo came up with the instant classic “Player’s Ball,” with clever little nods to Xmas, plus chitlins and shout-outs to Atlanta area towns and neighborhoods to show their love of hot ‘n’ greasy local culture. Their 1994 debut album, Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, was helmed by the Noize collective and gave the world a literal tour of Atlanta, its slang and its unique culture – their down-home funk à la Stax contrasted with the cold calculated West Coast G-funk sound and featured even more detailed Atlanta landmarks for a consistent, strong, and bumping ride. Along with “Player’s Ball,” “Crumblin ‘Erb” was a highlight (maybe the most sensual song you’ll hear about ganja outside of Kingston or Compton) and the title of “Hootie Hoo” alone is a worldwide call-out by now. With a platinum album under their belt, the band, along with their city and the region (aka Third Coast), were on the map, but the group was only getting started.
Following the Source Awards praise/diss, 1996’s ATLiens found the band feeling more confident and independent, while the title signified their new extraterrestrial connections. Now boasting a more stripped down, minimalist sound, they were getting more experimental too, roping in monk-like chanting (“Babylon”), stunning start/stop rap flows (“Elevators [Me & You]”), gospel choruses (“Decatur Psalm”), one song with no drums/beats (“Millennium”), and another one dominated by gentle piano (“13th Floor/Growing Old”). Along with that, there’s sounds of water splashes, hyperventilating and helicopters beginning songs here or samples from Carl Perkins, Super Mario Bros. and Iron Butterfly used otherwise. The group gladly made pinning them down maddeningly difficult while they almost topped the charts and went platinum for the second time. But again, amazingly enough, they were still building up to something more.
VIDEO: OutKast “Rosa Parks”
1998’s Aquemini was their most ambitious album to date, which was saying a lot. For this sprawling, exhilarating tour de force, they were taking more production control themselves, holding the reins for the weirder material while leaving the dancefloor bangers to Noise and Mr. DJ (David Sheats), and utilizing almost a dozen musicians, plus strings and horns. Again, the stripped-down sound featured deceptively simple drumbeats and small, potent flourishes. Alongside Curtis Mayfield and Sly Stone samples, the album includes snippets from prog mavens Camel (twice) and Genesis and easy-listening folkies The Sandpipers. Their themes now included sci-fi, technology gone wrong (years before Black Mirror), overdosing, and the end of the world. The record cover illustration shows them as astrological and larger-than-life figures of pimp and gangsta mythology, recalling Miles’ Afro-Futuristic early 70’s artwork via Mati Klarwein. The unconventional, cutting-edge nature of their work, where each track would whiplash you around from one place/mood/sound/style to another, recalled the innovative nature of ’60s UK and West Coast classic rock bands (the Beatles, Beach Boys, Who, Byrds, and Yardbirds), similarly flexing their creative muscles after their first few albums, not to mention the dancefloor innovations of P-Funk, whose honcho himself would appear on Aquemini.
The journey of the third album begins the same way that the second one does, with the curtain pulled back for a brief intro of a quiet storm, leading you into their world. From there, Dre gets defensive about his new crazy-outfit, straight-edge lifestyle on “Return of The ‘G’,” which stands for “gangsta.” But he doesn’t spell it out in the title for a reason – he’s not a “gangsta” in the usual rap sense, more of a “prankster,” as he rhymes and proves with some mind-blowing turns on the world “peace.” Big Boi’s got his back here too, though he was always more street-smart than gangsta himself. And while musically, they keep their minimalist ’70s soul style, it’s more strident here, and for the better. The song ends with a skit where a would-be fan complains about the band – “first they were pimps, then they were aliens…” – though he returns at the very end of the album to chew on his words.
From there, the front and middle of the album is chock-full of extraordinary, groundbreaking material. “Rosa Parks” (the first single off the album) doesn’t directly reference the civil rights icon except when they start the chorus with “Ah-ha, hush that fuss/Everybody move to the back of the bus,” which didn’t impress the song’s subject and led to a years-long lawsuit. Starting with layers of chanted voices and then rapid-fire rhymes over acoustic guitar, the most remarkable moment of the song happens in the middle, with a harmonica solo for a whole 30 seconds, courtesy of Dre’s stepdad, Pastor Robert Hodo, which manages to fuse country, gospel and blues into the mix. How much more downhome can you get than that?
VIDEO: OutKast feat. Raekwon “Skew It on the Bar-B”
Raekwon’s verse on “Skew It on the Bar-B,” detailing his weed empire and entrepreneurial skills, is important, as it’s a merging of a significant East Coast (as in NY) rapper and Wu member with the ATL crew, showing that the cultural centers had ties. That’s not even mentioning the ultra-catchy chorus (“Old school players to new school fools/’Kast keep it jumping like kangaroos”), or the math and astronomy lessons that Dre drops in his verse, where he takes on the lack of respect they get otherwise. Subject for argument/discussion – are the Aussie references here related to another neglected, deep South locale?
In a swirl of doubts about technology, especially human/machine interfaces, cybersex, and virtual reality, the Dre-led George Clinton collaboration “Synthesizer” is nothing less than astonishing. Remember, this is ’98 here, so Dre was on a truly futuristic/visionary tip here with his deep, detailed critique, even admitting in the stunningly audacious song that it ain’t radio-friendly. While the staccato, cymbal-heavy beat isn’t easily danceable, it’s not lead-footed either, ending with only voices and finger snaps. My only complaint is that Uncle George’s asides and sung commentaries are buried too deep in the mix sometimes, though he’s the perfect accomplice here, as he has his own history of mental imagery and mind games.
Fast forward a few songs (which we’ll return to later) and we come to another incredible run of songs in the center of the album. “Da Art of Storytellin”” has two parts, back-to-back, with the first split between Boi’s hooker hook-up getting cut short by family obligations and then Dre partying with her sister, later finding out that she OD’d while in the middle of a pregnancy, making the sweet soulful chorus all the more ironic. The remix single version adds a verse by Slick Rick where he fights with his woman but also wonders about his own masculinity and wrestles with thoughts of violence towards women – complex and disturbing stuff for sure. Part 2 of the song takes a bizarre turn, with the alien theme returning, including an E.T. visit and an ensuing apocalypse, and even that won’t stop them from recording.
Anyone who’s annoyed by the Spanish call-and-response of “Mamacita” is really missing out on something special there. In a narrative that could almost be four different songs, it starts out with Jersey rapper Masada showing off her style and prowess, then Dre telling about a woman who’s sick of guys and turns to women for some loving, then Dungeon Family member Witchdoctor giving a harsh critique of guys who try to impress women, and then the more straightforward Boi getting hot for a pair of hotties before turning on them and ditching them. No real common thread, but a brave, all-over-the-place musical stew for sure.
The steamy, smooth funk of “SpottieOttieDopaliscious” gets punctuated by peppy horns out of reggae/Afrobeat style, plus sweet Curtis Mayfield like vocals. Dre talks up a wild party but makes himself out to be a post-modern unreliable narrator at the end of his verse, while Boi details his perfect little “angel,” but then describes the vicious, no-way-out ending of a drug dealer’s life as the song fades off into dub/echo. In the middle though, Dre takes an amazing turn, talking in a slower, more conventional style than what we usually hear in rap – what he calls “smokin’ word,” modeled after Iceberg Slim, who started as a pimp before turning into an author and recording artist, not to mention a gangsta rap icon. It’s striking enough to make you drop back to the two-minute mark to hear Dre do it again.
Near the end of the album, where Mr. DJ’s old friend calls from jail to Boi and spits rhymes with no music or backing beats, we get a contrast with “Liberation,” almost nine minutes of simmering, bubbly funk with a gospel-like chorus and beautiful verses via Erykah Badu (who happened to be Dre’s baby-mama too) and Goodie Mob’s CeeLo in his pre-breakout star days. Dungeon Family’s Big Rube takes a verse that ropes in Wizard of Oz imagery and more of the “smokin’ word” style. The song grooves out at the end with a jazzy piano/congas vibe for the last few minutes, drifting us off into bliss.
Aquemini then completes itself with “Chonkyfire,” Dre’s vision of transcendence, or as he says, “5th dimension of ascension,” heard over Toni Martin’s wailing guitar. And then, aside from the previously mentioned record store skit, the tune concludes with the Source Awards incident – the boos and then the speeches, with the music slowing down as Dre has his moment and then everything churns to a crawl and fades off into the distance.
Rewinding and jumping around a bit, though Dre and Boi seem to be the closest of allies, there are some small, noticeable cracks in the façade of the band. While the title is a combination of their zodiac signs and pledges that they’ll always work as a team, Boi is actually mostly solo on “West Savannah” (a track meant for their first album, detailing where he grew up) and “Slump,” with its sinuous groove, soulful chorus and Goodie Mob guest spots where they detailing their drug dealing tales. Even here though, Dre does include his baby’s cries and vocals from his mom’s old friend (keeping the family theme along with his stepdad earlier). In yet another Goodie Mob feature, “Y’All Scared,” with a spooky background and harrowing/echoed guitar (one of the Camel samples), we hear Dre’s cautionary tales about weed, which are especially instructive after “Slump” and Raekwon’s cameo, both proudly promoting their own skills at dealing. Dre wasn’t shy about speaking about his clean lifestyle, even if that ran against their guest stars’ again and again.
Though Aquemini still didn’t have the group denting the single charts, they notched up another platinum album and mountains of critical accolades, standing tall alongside Jay-Z’s Vol. 2… Hard Knock Life and Lauryn Hill’s debut as one of the most epochal hip-hop albums of 1998, and that decade for that matter. Restless souls that they were, Dre and Boi kept moving onward and upward, and found new heights of fame and recognition with 2000’s Stankonia (5x platinum and three hit singles) and 2003’s two solo albums for the price of one Speakerboxxx/The Love Below (11x platinum, three more hit singles). But then, after the album/movie Idlewild in 2006, OutKast were done as a recording act, with only a huge money-making festival tour in 2014 to show otherwise. Big Boi had a trio of solo albums (with 2010’s Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty being the most funky fun of them). Dre, being Dre, pursued acting, most notably in a 2013 Hendrix biopic Jimi: All Is by My Side, and did the occasional guest verse for others, and left people guessing otherwise.
Still, OutKast secured their legacy, with their praises being sung by, among others, Kanye West, Lil Wayne, J. Cole, Travis Scott, Tyler, the Creator, J. Cole and Childish Gambino, who in his acting guise as Donald Glover certainly took something from them for his bizarre, compelling Atlanta TV series. OutKast’s ultimate irony was that as they kept making eccentric, offbeat musical statements, they also kept getting more popular and more ingrained into pop culture, as if the world warped towards their perspective until when there was no more OutKast per se, it didn’t matter – we all had become OutKasts ourselves.
As for Aquemini, nowadays it’s unfairly not as fondly remembered, as it’s somewhat overshadowed by their later, huge-selling albums. But it provided a roadmap for their last LP, and its riches await any listener who’s ready to dive in there. Wear a bodysuit and maybe scuba gear, too – it’s a deep dive for sure.
- Twinkle, Twinkle Uncle Floyd - January 29, 2026
- Best Music Journalism 2025 - December 23, 2025
- Rock & Roll Globe’s 20 Great Music Videos of 2025 - December 21, 2025
You May Also Like
-
-
October 25, 2018 -
March 14, 2020
Pingback:My Homepage