Aquemini is the third studio album by American hip hop duo Outkast. It was released on September 29, 1998, by LaFace Records. The title is a portmanteau of the two performers' Zodiac signs: Aquarius and Gemini, which is indicative of the album's recurring theme of the differing personalities of the two members. The group recorded the majority of the album in Bobby Brown's Bosstown Recording Studios and Doppler Studios, both in Atlanta, Georgia.
"Player's Ball" is the debut single from hip hop duo Outkast. Originally released two weeks prior on the compilation A LaFace Family Christmas, the single was released on November 19, 1993, to promote the forthcoming debut album, Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik. The song itself discusses the nature of living in the South of the United States, and growing up within a hip hop culture. The accompanying music video was directed by Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs.
Crunk is a subgenre of hip hop music that emerged in the early 1990s and gained mainstream success during the mid 2000s. Crunk is often up-tempo and one of Southern hip hop's more dance and club oriented subgenres. An archetypal crunk track frequently uses a main groove consisting of layered keyboard synths, a drum machine clapping rhythm, heavy basslines, and shouting vocals, often in a call and response manner. The term "crunk" was also used throughout the 2000s as a blanket term to denote any style of Southern hip hop, a side effect of the genre's breakthrough to the mainstream. The word derives from its African-American Vernacular English past-participle form, "crunk", of the verb "to crank". It refers to being excited or high on drugs.
André Lauren Benjamin, better known as André 3000, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and actor. Born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, he is best known for being one-half of southern hip hop duo Outkast, alongside fellow Atlanta-based rapper Big Boi. Benjamin has been ranked as one of the greatest rappers of all time by publications including Billboard, Complex, The Source, and About.com.
ATLiens is the second studio album by American hip hop duo Outkast. It was released on August 27, 1996, by Arista Records and LaFace Records. From 1995 to 1996, Outkast recorded ATLiens in sessions at several Atlanta studios—Bosstown Recording Studios, Doppler Recording Studios, PatchWerk Recording Studio, Purple Dragon Studios, and Studio LaCoCo—as well as Chung King Recording Studio and Sound On Sound Recording in New York City.
Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik is the debut studio album by American hip hop duo Outkast, released on April 26, 1994, by Arista Records and LaFace Records. Having befriended each other two years prior, rappers André 3000 and Big Boi pursued recording music as a duo and worked with production team Organized Noize, leading to a record contract with LaFace. With the team producing, Outkast recorded the album at the Dungeon, D.A.R.P. Studios, Purple Dragon, Bosstown, and Doppler Studios, all in Atlanta.
"Let's Go Crazy" is a 1984 song by Prince and The Revolution, from the album Purple Rain. It is the opening track on both the album and the film Purple Rain. "Let's Go Crazy" was one of Prince's most popular songs, and was a staple for concert performances, often segueing into other hits. When released as a single, the song became Prince's second number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100, and also topped the two component charts, the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Hot Dance Club Play charts, as well as becoming a UK Top 10 hit. The B-side was the lyrically controversial "Erotic City". In the UK, the song was released as a double A-side with "Take Me with U".
"The Way You Move" is a hip-hop and soul song performed by Big Boi of American hip hop duo OutKast. The song features OutKast mentor Sleepy Brown on guest vocals. Along with "Hey Ya!", recorded by OutKast's other member André 3000, "The Way You Move" is one of the two lead singles from Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, OutKast's double album project that includes a solo album from each member.
"That's That" is the second single by Snoop Dogg from the album Tha Blue Carpet Treatment. The song was the first single taken from the album in the United Kingdom, however the single only achieved notable success in the U.S., where it reached #20 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The song samples the melody played in the 1988 film Coming to America during the bathroom scene when Eddie Murphy gets washed by female servants.
The discography of Outkast, an American hip hop duo, consists of six studio albums, one compilation album, one soundtrack album, one video album, 32 singles, three promotional singles, and 21 music videos. In 1992, Outkast became the first hip hop act to be signed to the label LaFace Records; with their first studio album Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik (1994) that debuted at number 20 on the US Billboard 200. Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik spawned the commercially successful single "Player's Ball", which reached number 37 on the US Billboard Hot 100. It was later certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Their following two albums, ATLiens (1996) and Aquemini (1998), were commercially successful in the United States; both albums peaked at number two on the Billboard 200, and were certified double-platinum by the RIAA. Three singles were released from each album; all three from ATLiens charted on the Billboard Hot 100, with "Elevators " peaking at number 12, making it the most successful. The lead single from Aquemini, "Rosa Parks", peaked at number 55 on the Billboard Hot 100: two more singles, "Skew It on the Bar-B" and "Da Art of Storytellin' ", were released from the album. In 1998, Outkast collaborated with hip hop group Goodie Mob on the single "Black Ice " and with rapper Cool Breeze on the single "Watch for the Hook"; the singles peaked at numbers 50 and 73 on the Billboard Hot 100, respectively.
"Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik" is a song by American hip hop duo Outkast, released on June 21, 1994 as the second single from their debut studio album of the same name. The title track managed to chart at #74 on the Billboard Hot 100, however failed to live up to the success of their previous single, "Player's Ball", which charted at #37 on that same chart.
"ATLiens" and "Wheelz of Steel" are two songs by American hip-hop duo OutKast, released as the second single from their second studio album, ATLiens (1996). Both songs were written and produced by OutKast. The double A-side single peaked at number 35 on the Billboard Hot 100.
"Jazzy Belle" is the third and last single from hip hop duo Outkast's second studio album, ATLiens. It was released as a remix single and it peaked at #52 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song is the only single from the album ATLiens to be produced by Organized Noize, the other two singles being produced by OutKast themselves.
"Da Art of Storytellin' " is the third and final single from hip-hop duo Outkast's third studio album Aquemini. The song was released as a single on May 25, 1999, but failed to chart on the Billboard Hot 100. It peaked at #67 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. Only the single version of the song features Slick Rick, with his verse completely cut from the album version. This song is not to be confused with Slick Rick's album The Art of Storytelling, released on the same day. This song was sampled in J. Cole's song "Land of the Snakes" from his studio album Born Sinner.
"Damn!" is a song by the Atlanta rap duo YoungBloodZ. It was released as the second single from their second studio album Drankin' Patnaz and was produced by Lil Jon who is also featured on the song. A club mix appears on the duo's third studio album. It is their biggest hit to date, peaking at number 4 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, YoungBloodZ's sole top 10 single on the chart.
"Love Me" is the lead single from American R&B group 112 from their second studio album, Room 112 and features vocals from rapper Mase. Q and Mike share lead vocals on the song, with Slim providing adlibs. It peaked at number 17 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and reached number eight on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks chart. A music video directed by Frosty for the song was made, featuring the group and Mase performing in a white background. The song contains a sample of the 1981 record, "Don't You Know That?" by recording artist Luther Vandross from his debut album, Never Too Much. In the song, Mase takes a supposed shot at rapper Jay-Z on this song with the line "What we hear is platinum that, platinum this/Platinum whips, nobody got no platinum hits".
Outkast was an American hip hop duo formed in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1992, consisting of rappers André 3000 and Big Boi. The duo achieved both critical and commercial success from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s, helping to popularize Southern hip hop with their intricate lyricism, memorable melodies, and positive themes, while experimenting with a diverse range of genres such as funk, psychedelia, jazz, and techno.
"Before I Lay (You Drive Me Crazy)" is a 1996 song by American musician CeCe Peniston, released as a duet with JoJo Hailey of Jodeci. The single was released as the second single from the singer's third and final studio album, I'm Movin' On (1996). It peaked at number fifty-two on the US Billboard R&B chart, while reaching number twenty-one on the Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart (a virtual equivalent to number 121 on the Billboard Hot 100).
Neal H Pogue is an American producer, audio engineer and mixer originally from Roselle, New Jersey, and based in Los Angeles. Pogue is a multi-time Grammy Award winner, having first won for his engineering and mixing work on Outkast's Speakerboxxx/The Love Below (2004) – which won the Album of the Year category, and his audio mixing work on Tyler, The Creator's Igor & Call Me If You Get Lost – which both records won the Best Rap Album category respectively in 2020 & 2022. Pogue has also produced for artists such as M.I.A, Nelly Furtado, Earth, Wind & Fire and has mixed for artists such as TLC, Pink, Nicki Minaj, Janelle Monáe, Tyler, the Creator, and Steve Lacy. Having engineered and mixed TLC's Grammy nominated 11-time platinum single "Waterfalls", Pogue also arranged the horns on "Waterfalls" under the pseudonym "Shock". Pogue has gone on to work with many prominent names in music.
"Black Ice (Sky High)" is a song by American hip hop group Goodie Mob from their second studio album Still Standing (1998), released as its second single on June 7, 1998. The song features American hip hop duo Outkast and was produced by Mr. DJ.
