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MyIntroToLetYouKnow: 3 Reasons Why OutKast Debut Album Reigns Supreme
“All the players came from far and wide, wearing afros and braids, kicking in gangsta rides.”
This quote from OutKast’s legendary song Players Ball reads like a mix of Shakespearean poetry mixed with the flair of Donald Goines. The single, marketed on LaFace’s Christmas album A LaFace Family Christmas, ended up becoming their breakthrough single in 1994. The duo, composed of Andre Benjamin and Antwan Patton, met at Tri-Cities High School in East Point, Georgia and it was there that they decided to form the duo we know now as OutKast.
As iconic and familiar as they are to us now, in 1994, they were virtual unknowns competing to be heard in a rap world that was dominated by East Coast rappers like Wu-Tang Clan, A Tribe Called Quest, Run DMC and the burgeoning careers of Nas and Biggie Smalls along with the West Coast acts of Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, 2Pac and Souls of Mischief.
The efforts of groups like the Geto Boys and UGK in opening the door for the South can’t be understated, but no group from the South was able to draw in the rest of the rap coasts the way OutKast did with their debut album entitled Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik. An ode to the South and more so Atlanta, a listen to the album serves as the perfect…
