On April 11, the Coachella Valley Music Festival was thick with anticipation: A reunited Outkast would be kicking off the first of two headlining sets before some 90,000 revelers. Fans of the Atlanta hip-hop duo — who have sold more than 25 million records and produced chart-toppers “Ms. Jackson” and “Hey Ya!” — had waited a decade for this.
And yet, Outkast’s uninspired opening performance ended up being panned by critics and fans. “The banter was cold, Big Boi delivering the traditional exhortations for crowd participation after every limp note from André,” NPR music writer Frannie Kelley reported.
But since then, André “André 3000” Benjamin and Antwan “Big Boi” Patton, both 39, have been getting back on their feet, playing a string of lower-profile music festivals like the Hangout in Gulf Shores, Ala. And insiders say they won’t waste a second prominent chance to reclaim their throne, headlining the opening night of Governors Ball, the Randalls Island music festival that takes place June 6 to 8. (Jack White tops the bill Saturday, followed by Vampire Weekend on Sunday.)
Post-Coachella, reviewers have raved about the pair’s onstage interplay. “That chemistry is what Outkast is truly about,” says Rico Wade of the studio team Organized Noize, who produced the duo’s 1994 debut, “Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik.” “The [negative] stuff just fades away.”
For Governors Ball co-founder Jordan Wolowitz, the chance to book Outkast was an irresistible prospect. “They are arguably the greatest duo in hip-hop history,” he says.
The guys met as teens at Atlanta’s Lenox Square shopping mall, strengthening their bond with rap battles in their high-school cafeteria. Soon they were joined at the hip, two rhyme-obsessives with dreams of taking their town to new lyrical heights.
“Before Outkast, Atlanta had been known for bass music and TLC,” recalls Shanti Das, former promotions director at LaFace Records, the label that signed the group in 1993. “They felt there [maybe] wasn’t a place for them in Atlanta.”
Dré, the wig-wearing eccentric, and Big Boi, the chest-beating b-boy and closet Kate Bush fanatic, offered an alternative to the violent East Coast vs. West Coast rap wars of the time.
Thankfully, there were other like-minded local individuals who saw hip-hop through adventurous eyes. When the duo auditioned for Wade in 1992, they rhymed over A Tribe Called Quest’s six-minute-plus “Scenario” remix. “I’m sitting there amazed,” remembers Wade, who would later oversee the formation of the influential Dungeon Family, the gifted rap collective made up of Outkast, the CeeLo Green-led Goodie Mob and others. “The way Dré and Big were rapping, it was like [they were] not breathing. I had to work with them.”
“Before ‘Kast there was no real Southern presence alongside [New Yorkers] Nas or the Wu-Tang Clan,” says Radio One Atlanta online content editor Mark Allwood. “They set out to be trailblazers.”
And they succeeded, releasing five consecutive platinum albums and a string of ambitious singles: “Player’s Ball” (1993); “Rosa Parks” (1997); “B.O.B” and “Ms. Jackson” (2000). When Prince was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004, he chose Outkast and Alicia Keys to speak on his behalf.
The height of Outkast’s mainstream coronation saw the 2003 release of the hit double album “Speakerboxxx/The Love Below,” which literally split the difference between Big Boi’s soulful swagger (“The Way You Move”) and André 3000’s freak-flag waving statements (“Hey Ya!”). But the cracks were starting to show, with the once-tight unit headed in different artistic directions.
Whispers intensified that the pair was headed for a breakup, and André did little to extinguish such talk. “If we weren’t doing music, I don’t know if we would still be friends,” he said in a 2004 Blender magazine interview. “In a perfect world, this would be the last Outkast record.” André pursued an acting career (including 2003’s “Be Cool” and a starring role in the Jimi Hendrix biopic “All Is by My Side,” due later this year) and made the occasional appearance on tracks such as Frank Ocean’s “Pink Matter.” Meanwhile, Big Boi kept making records, including 2010’s acclaimed “Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty.”
The duo hadn’t broken up . . . but they weren’t exactly together, either. “If you’ve been near a television recently, you’ll know that André 3000 is too busy shaving his mustache to record a new Outkast album,” Big Boi told the Village Voice in 2012, referring to his partner’s new gig moonlighting as a Gillette razor pitchman.
So what compelled André and Big Boi to put their differences aside? According to Rolling Stone, Outkast is expected to rake in $60 million from their summer tour. But Wade thinks that time heals wounds, too. “They could have reunited a long time ago for the money,” he says.
No doubt, the guys felt some nostalgia, since it is the 20th anniversary of their debut album — and with everyone from Compton rhyme-monster Kendrick Lamar to fellow ATL hookmaster Future citing them as inspiration. Now there’s talk of a Dungeon Family documentary. But one famous Outkast fan isn’t satisfied.
“I’m happy about ‘Kast coming back together,” says rapper/producer T-Pain. “But if they are saying Outkast is getting back together, I want an Outkast album.”