Everyone who has ever listened to Outkast before has had the same question: Who is “Ms. Jackson”? What made André 3000 sing his heart out to apologize to this woman? Dig a little deep into hip-hop lore, and you learn that the infamous “Ms. Jackson” was actually Erykah Badu’s mother.
At some point in the mid-90s, André and Badu met and quickly got into a relationship. By 1997, they welcomed their son Seven Sirius Benjamin. But at some point, they decided against having a relationship together, though they still remained close over the years.
By the time Outkast made “Ms. Jackson”, André 3000 kept thinking about the awkward tension an ex’s mother must feel, especially when there’s a baby involved. “’Ms. Jackson’ came from just wondering — after a relationship kinda goes to the left — about a parent of a girl who has a child, like, how does she feel about the situation? And that’s what birthed that song,” he said in an interview (captured by Genius).
“But it’s like my whole situation — me and Erykah, what we went through — that is the inspiration for the song because I had to go through it to know about it, to even think of something like that.”
How Andre 3000 and Erykah Badu’s Relationship Helped Birth Outkast’s ‘Ms. Jackson’
Admittedly, Badu felt a little sour about the song at first. Big Boi’s verse is a lot more scorned, and it brought an uneasy tension at first, thinking André shared his sentiments. Eventually, though, her temperament cooled.
“It hit kind of a sore spot. I didn’t wanna hear that, especially when I heard Big Boi’s verse. When I heard André’s verse, I felt very good because his verse was really, really inspiring. He just said how he felt and it was his honest feelings and I always respected that and listened to what he felt and appreciated it,” Erykah Badu said of the André 3000 and Big Boi classic.
“Ms. Jackson” herself loved the song though, taking pride in having a song written about her. “Baby, she bought herself a ‘Ms. Jackson’ license plate,” Badu added. “She had the mug, she had the ink pen, she had the headband, everything. That’s who loved it.”
Years later, André 3000 and Erykah Badu remain close, even though they’re not romantically involved. In a 2014 interview with VIBE, he explained that the root of their relationship is always rooted in humor first, to the point that their son finds everything a little absurd.
“Our son is about to be 17 and he tells us, ‘You guys are nuts.’ Erykah and I are cool friends, man. We talk on the phone. She even asks my advice on relationships,” André 3000 said. “She’s like a cool sister more than anything. The first thing people would think about us is, ‘Oh, they don’t get along.’ But there are always feelings when people grow apart. It’s something you have to get through. But man, we are cool.”
(Photo by Kristina Bumphrey/WWD via Getty Images)
The post How André 3000 Turned an Apology to Erykah Badu’s Mother Into Outkast’s First No. 1 Hit appeared first on VICE.
