OutKast: Aliens in Cadillacs
As appeared in Vol. 3 Issue 6 of Mic Check magazine

In the era of photocopied, cloned rap artists, there are few individuals striving to avoid the trends and to create original music. Because the majority have been so obvious in their attempt to imitate the sound of the moment, groups such as OutKast, who do their own thing, catch much attention. Jumping onto the scene from out of nowhere in 1994 with their platinum debut, Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, the boys from Atlanta made sure that the South had not been forgotten in the hip-hop world. Their flavour represented both the geographical and ideological differences between the rest of hip-hop and OutKast's day-to-day Southern life music: Cadillacs rather than Benzes, chicken wings rather than Moet.

In the two year interval between Southernplayalisticadillacmuzic and the recent release of their sophomore effort, ATLiens, OutKast took to outer space. They returned as aliens, a term they use to represent their individuality, with a space-age theme dominating the highly impressive album. The 'ATL.' abbreviation is for Atlanta, a city that pre-OutKast was very much alien to most hip-hop listeners. "We got tired of all hip-hop music being the same," Says Dre, referring to the concept behind the new record. "Everybody was just doing the same thing over and over again. We just wanted to keep the thing going and give our peers and the people who listen to us something new to feed off of. Then they can come back and do something innovative that we can feed off of to keep the whole thing going."

Musically, OutKast's breaking free of boundaries can be evidenced on such tracks as "E.T. (Extraterrestrial)", which lacks a beat. Dre and Big Boi's lyrics instead are regulated by the flow of the music. "We tried to put a beat on that." Laughs Big Boi, "It just didn't work. The music was so strong, you know, the bass and all the sounds were so wicked it just set a vibe that seemed to override a beat. When we rhymed we didn't rhyme to no beat. We rhymed to the vibe."

The duo refuse to let themselves be limited by listening only to certain genres of music. Instead they prefer to draw from a variety of sources. "We listen to all music." States Dre, "Rock, reggae, calypso, opera, orchestras, blues; anything that has a feel to it. We like to try new things out with all instruments and sounds."

"There's no boundaries on what we do." Adds Big Boi, "Cause we're not scared to listen to Led Zeppelin, Stone Temple Pilots, Cranberries, Sade, RUN-DMC, Anita Baker, Bob Marley. We don't discriminate against no music or no people."

In terms of the creation of their own music, OutKast choose to use mostly live instrumentation and some obscure sampling in order to avoid repetition. "There's nothing wrong with sampling." States Big Boi, "I mean everybody does it. But there's a difference between sampling and stealing. Don't take a twenty second sample and run the whole damn loop over and over and over. There's nothin' new to that. If somebody else comes along and does it you both got the same damn song. We don't do remakes of songs. We sample sounds. When we put them in you'll never know where the fuck they came from."

As a result of OutKast's creative formula,ATLiens, like it's predecessor, combines a abundance of various styles of sound. The album blends raw hip-hop, soul, R&B, and funk together in a mix that never even approaches awkwardness. The fusion of music along with the alien theme lend themselves nicely to George Clinton 'Mothership' comparisons.

"It's a new landing like that." Smiles Dre, "It's psychedelic like that, too. And when we get our real tour, our real stage show together with Goodie Mob..." He pauses and reconsiders after mentioning a tour with fellow Organized Noize produced unit, the Goodie Mob. "I ain't even going to say no more. You've got to come to the show."

Big Boi, however, does continue to expand on the 'Mothership' similarities. "We're serious with our music, but at the same time we're having a lot of fun with it. We don't let anyone tell us how we're going to make it, though. If it's dope and it's got a feel to it, we'll do it. We don't set up no boundaries. Parliament was the same way; they didn't give a damn what they did. They used soul, rock, blues, R&B, and even hip-hop in there. They were all funked out and now we're doing the same thing. When we come back with the Goodie Mob, that's when we're gonna drop our Mothership on your ass."

As for the future of hip-hop, and their role within it, OutKast envisions more experimentation amongst their peers. Comments Dre, "It's gonna get a lot more creative, you might see anything. I know that there's people out there who want to try something new, so I can't really say where hip-hop is going to go. I do know that it is gonna keep changing, though."

"The imitators will never stop." Adds Big Boi, "But you're gonna see more people doing original things. That's how you know when something's dope: when the imitators bite it. As for us, we're just gonna stick with our formula and continue above and beyond."