Nobody would deny that Oukast is one of the greatest hip-hop duos of all time, and it turns out that a lot of their best music was made after an infamous award show moment that encouraged Big Boi to lean harder into what they were doing.
A few years ago, Big Boi sat down to answer questions submitted by Guardian readers, with the topics ranging from his career to his favorite foods (though no one asked about his owls). One person asked the rapper about his feelings about taking the stage to receive the Best New Artist award at the Source Awards in 1995, which has gone down in infamy as being a pivotal moment in the East Coast/West Coast hip-hop war.
“The East Coast and West Coast beef was happening. It was weird, but it was exciting too,” Big Boi replied. “This was our first big awards show, and we were nominated, and for us to actually win, it was like: ‘OK, they know what time it is for us in the south!’”
The joy was short-lived, as Big Boi and Andre 3000 quickly began getting hate from the crowd over their victory, but they let the negativity fuel them. “When we got booed, it was like: “OK, y’all thought this was a novelty or a one-time thing? Wait till we show you what else we can do.” It put the batteries in our back to just keep going harder as Outkast.”
Big Boi then revealed that a major West Coast artist, who was there, was interested in collaborating with them. “Tupac actually wanted to work with us on his unreleased One Nation album, which was all about uniting everybody,” the rapper shared. “I remember him barking to me and Andre 3000 down the phone like: ‘Yo, I need you on this compilation! I got my group, the Outlawz. Yo, we gotta do it maaaaan! We’re gonna change the world.’ That kind of talk.”
Big Boi then added of Tupac, “We lost someone special.”
Thankfully, Outkast wasn’t dissuaded by the surly Source Awards crowd; otherwise, we never would have gotten ATLiens (1996), or Stankonia (2000), or Speakerboxxx/The Love Below (2003), and so much more.
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