Listening to OutKast’s discography on shuffle is a tumultuous trip through time and space: It’s hip hop, funk, soul and jazz. It’s authentic accounts of the present and sci-fi visions for the future. But what remains constant is the duo’s unapologetic individualism and raw talent, which, coupled with hard work and sacrifice, led to their induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on Nov. 8, 2025.
“We started in little…,” André “André 3000” Benjamin said, choking up during his acceptance speech, “little rooms. Great things start in little rooms.”
André 3000 and Antwan “Big Boi” Patton formed OutKast in 1992 when they were 16 years old, growing up in Atlanta, Georgia. They were pursued by a local collective of producers called Organized Noize, and with other schoolmates they created the Dungeon Family Collective.
The dungeon in question was Rico Wade’s basement, André 3000 explained during his speech as he recounted the sacrifices that his community made. It was from this humble studio that André 3000 and Big Boi became LaFace Records’ first hip hop act in 1992. Two years later, they released their debut album, Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik.
“It was definitely Atlanta, and Southern. It was not identifiable with any place else,” said Ray Murray of Organized Noize in the documentary, ATL: The Untold Story of Atlanta’s Rise in the Rap Game (2014).
The two artists painted a vivid picture of the streets where they grew up, the neighbors they saw every morning. Greg Street likens their impact to how N.W.A pioneered gangsta-rap on the West Coast: They gave a voice to the regional Black community that was alienated by society.
OutKast’s greatness wasn’t initially recognized by the larger hip hop community of the ’90s, which was dominated by a rivalry between East and West Coast rappers. At the 1995 Source Awards, an infamous site of the beef, OutKast received boos as they accepted their “Best New Rap Group” award. It was clear that many didn’t care to listen.
However, André 3000 has never been concerned with competition. During their acceptance speech, he famously proclaimed, “The South got something to say!”
It was a pivotal moment for both OutKast and the South; during hip-hop’s glory days, when diss tracks and battles of the East and the West were gaining success, they carved out a space for Southern rap.
Recording artist Killer Mike describes it as cutting an umbilical cord: André 3000 and Big Boi weren’t New York wannabes, they were rapping for themselves and for their community.
The group continued to follow their path, and they released ATLiens in 1996, which is considered an important moment in the movement, philosophy and cultural aesthetic of Afrofuturism. In 1998, they released the experimental Acquemeni, and Stanknonia dropped in 2000, producing the iconic track, “Ms. Jackson.”
2003’s Speakerboxx/The Love Below is the product of what was originally two separate albums. André 3000’s psychedelic love songs alongside Big Boi’s political Southern style became one of the most important albums in hip hop. Boasting the famous track, “Hey Ya!,” it won a Grammy Award for Album of the Year, one of only two hip hop acts to win this award.
Janelle Monaé performed “Hey Ya!” at the induction, along with performances from Tyler, the Creator, Doja Cat, JID, Sleepy Brown and Big Boi himself. André 3000 was absent from the stage, as he told Rolling Stone that he doesn’t have the same impulse to rap that he once did. Despite their revolutionary commercial success, OutKast is not a product that the two were expected to churn out — it’s a project pursued because of the people surrounding the group.
30 years later, André 3000 recalled the support these people provided and the beef that OutKast transcended.
“There’s this thing about competition in rap … I never felt like I was in competition with nobody …” he continued in his acceptance speech. “Inspiring people, man. That’s really what it’s about.”
OutKast is joining their own inspirations in the Hall of Fame, taking their rightful place beside Prince, A Tribe Called Quest and Missy Elliott. The group’s ability to inspire is embedded in mainstream hip hop now, like in the sounds of Kendrick Lamar and Future.
OutKast’s lyrics and words reverberate through hip hop history, creating an unshakable legacy. They didn’t wait for belonging, and yet they found it anyway.
Alexandria Fennell is a senior in the College of Human Ecology. She can be reached at acf65@cornell.edu.
