Little did I realize that Outkast’s Aquemini was going to be the last album of the golden age of rap. I’m no aficionado, but I reckon the dusty stacks of Rap and Hip Hop records on the shelves of my place definitely qualify this opinion. Yes, there have been plenty of post 1998 gems, no doubt, but you just can’t deny that it’s just… different now. I may start some static by saying this, but I haven’t really loved an Outkast record since Aquemini!

A friend of mine just forwarded me this article where Outkast and the entire creative team around Aquemini reminisce on the process in a track by track retrospective… even Lex Diamonds throws his two-cents in, God.

On Return of the G

Andre 3000: I was young and wilder and some of my fashion choices people didn’t accept at the time. I started getting flak from some people, so they were like, ‘Either he’s gay or on drugs.’ And it’s funny because I was high as hell all the way through Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, but by ATLiens and Aquemini I wasn’t smoking or drinking.

Big Boi: Back then, there was a whole bunch of shit talking. People just couldn’t understand how we were making the type of music we were making. There were a lot of attacks coming at my partner, so we wanted OutKast to be like, ‘You fuck with my homeboy, we gonna fuck you up.’ We wanted to let people know, this man doesn’t stand by himself. I mean, that’s my dog. It’s a team effort.

Andre 3000: With Big Boi standing by me I knew I had to address some of the shit ’cause I can’t have my homeboy looking bad. I knew a lotta people felt like Southernplayalistic was some of our hardest work and they felt like we strayed from that. So ‘Return of the Gangsta’ was trying to give them a sense of, ‘Hey, I’m still a regular person.’

Read ‘The Making of OutKast’s Aquemini‘ a track by track retrospective.

- Cornbluth