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outkast

Inducted:

2025

Category:

Performer

In bringing their vision of the “Dirty South” to hip-hop, OutKast significantly broadened the genre’s palette. Relentlessly innovative, ATL’s own André 3000 and Big Boi concocted a unique blend of funk, soul, jazz, rock and Afrofuturism, weaving in compelling storytelling, delivered with astonishing vocal skill. Embraced critically, and wildly successful commercially, they are one of the few hip-hop acts to win the Album of the Year Grammy. Their cultural influence is incalculable.

Impact

Inductee Insights: Outkast

Signature Sound

OutKast hit in ’92 with raw Southern hip-hop storytelling, morphing mid-decade into ambitious Afrofuturistic visions and cosmic soundscapes. They hit their stride in ‘00, breaking through to the mainstream with the techno psychedelic funk of Stankonia, eventually breaking all the rules in ’03 with multiplatinum magnum opus Speakerboxxx/The Love Below.

Player’s Ball

Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik (1993)

Elevators (Me & You)

ATLiens (1996)

Rosa Parks

Aquameni (1999)

So Fresh So Clean

Stankonia (2001)

Hey Ya!

Speakerboxxx/The Love Below (2003)

Vibe said this debut single “swaggers like a lethal mixture of Stagolee and Superfly dancing to a wah-wah beat.” Southern hip- hop culture had arrived.

They’re legendary. Artistically, when you look at OutKast, they always pushed something new. You got the roots of funk, but the way they did it was super innovative.

Janelle Monae

Influence

Outkast

Influenced

Janelle Monae

Kendrick Lamar

Tyler, the Creator

Ludacris

T.I.

Future

Que

Dutch Rebelle

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