"Booty Macks, Pimp Slaps, and Day-Glo Cadillacs: the infamous imagery of '70's baadasssss blaxploitation films has been appropriated by the hip hop nation since the early days of the new school... OutKast have composed the perfect soundtrack to accompany their mack daddy fantasies, and their debut single, "Player's Ball," swaggers like a lethal mixture of Stagolee and Superfly dancing to a wah-wah beat. "With our music, me and Big Boi are trying to bring back the '70s," Andre says in a thick-as-smoke country accent. With a beat that's as smooth as a black '77 Seville with a Tabasco red crushed-velvet interior, "Player's Ball" is just a piece of the larger picture. Their album, Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, is crude enough to be Afro-kitsch, cool enough to be an Iceberg Slim daydream. "Down South there's lots of players rolling in Cadillacs. We just wanted to put that wild lifestyle on wax," Big Boi explains." Check the visuals to the title track, cont'd below...
"Big Boi, 19, and Andre, 18, first became homeboys when they were students at Atlanta's Tri-Cities High School, a performing arts school that their homegirls Xscape attended. After the OutKast boys hooked up, they began developing their skills in Andre's father's basement. "I had moved in with my Pops 'cause me and my mother were having problems. Then Big Boi moved in with me," Andre says. After performing at talent shows, OutKast began playin' in local clubs. Says Andre, "It was round that time that we met our producers, Organized Noize." (The team - Rico, Ray, and Pat - has also done tracks for TLC.) "We worked on material for a few months, then we were asked to drop some rhymes on L.A. Reid from LaFace Records." Smiling, Big Boi adds, "We dropped some freestyles, then LaFace set up a showcase for us. After doing two more showcases, we were signed." ... "Real recognizes real," says Andre. "L.A. may not know a lot about rap music, but he knows what sounds good." ... 'The vibe in A-T-L is good for making good music'." - Vibe, "Next," (August 1994).
