Outkast album cover afro woman professional#

ATLiens, by OutKast, LaFace Records, album cover (front), 1996. The Flag, by Rick James, Gordy/Motown Records, album cover (front), 1986. 3 If Rick JamesвЂ™s The Flag rallies around the liberatory potential of the freak flag on вЂњplanet Earth,вЂќ OutKast on ATLiens pursues such freedom dreams on вЂњnew Earth.вЂќ 4ДЇigure 4. Both the liner notes of the album, which took the form of a twenty-four-page comic book, and the albumвЂ™s accompanying music videos, present Big Boi and AndrГ© as Afro-futuristic aliens who originated in an ancient, North AfricaвЂ“like place called ATLantis on вЂњnew Earth.вЂќ And it is in ATLantis that they are tasked with protecting ATLantis and вЂњpositive musicвЂќ from an evil force called Nosamulli and, as the вЂњElevators (Me & You)вЂќ music video outlines, lead oppressed peoples from bondage. Visually, ATLiens remakes OutKast into superhero aliens. Musically, ATLiens draws on sparse, industrial, and minor dark tones in order to narrate the particular struggles of poverty, fame, relationships (romantic and platonic), and death and mourning in the Black South.

Outkast album cover afro woman professional#

While Big Boi tried to ignore the jeers by placating the audience with praises to New York, AndrГ© responded with the now often-quoted, impassioned statement, вЂњThe SouthвЂ™s got somethinвЂ™ to say.вЂќ It is within this personal and professional whirlwind that ATLiens embodies and OutKast articulates what exactly the South had to say. Finally, as a group, OutKast was reeling from the controversy of unexpectedly winning Best New Rap Group at the 1995 Source Awards (at the time The Source was a leading hip-hop magazine in the United States) and then immediately contending with the mostly bicoastal audience publicly booing them as they accepted the award. AndrГ© was newly single and, following a trip to Jamaica, newly sober, vegetarian, and spiritual. Big Boi was trying to make sense of the gift and the grief of his daughterвЂ™s birth, on the one hand, and the death of his parental guardian, on the other.

It came at a time of transitions for Big Boi, AndrГ©, and OutKast as a whole. Like Rick James with The Flag, OutKast broke new creative ground with ATLiens. And in addition to, and in conversation with, The Flag вЂ™s gestures to Black freedom struggles, James also saw this album as a symbol of вЂњfreedom, truth, a conviction of love for our brothers and sisters on the planet Earth.вЂќ 2ДЄ decade later, southern hip-hop duo OutKast, comprising Antwan вЂњBig BoiвЂќ Patton and AndrГ© вЂњAndrГ© 3000вЂќ Benjamin, released their sophomore album, ATLiens (Figure 5). Additionally, the cover finds James standing in front of and holding a red, black, and green flag, which James dubbed the вЂњfreak flag,вЂќ an allusion to his erotic 1981 hit song вЂњSuper Freak.вЂќ More than that, the colors of the flag and subject matter of the album signified an Afro-diasporic and pan-African political aesthetic that we saw in the previous chapter on Miles DavisвЂ™s On the Corner album. He criticizes Reagan and Soviet Union General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev on songs like вЂњFunk in America / Silly Little ManвЂќ and he discusses his struggles with sobriety on вЂњFree to Be Me.вЂќ When it came time to shoot the album cover, James did away with his standard long wigs and glittered body, and opted instead for a natural hair look and fully clothed all-black leather jumpsuit.

1 The Flag was JamesвЂ™s response to these personal and political issues. James was purportedly now sober (after decades of drug abuse), he had briefly moved to Sint Maarten to record the album and maintain his sobriety, and he was increasingly upset with the nuclear crisis of the Cold War and what he called the вЂњhypocrisy of the American empireвЂќ under President Ronald Reagan. Instead of the party-filled and drug-laden records that most listeners associated with him, James wanted The Flag to be a more serious take on his life and politics. The album was a dramatic departure for James.

In 1986 Rick James released The Flag (Figure 4), his final solo album under Motown Records. Then the question is вЂњBig Boi whatвЂ™s up with AndrГ©? / Is he in a cult? Is he on drugs? Is he gay?вЂќ Strange! The gossip is so tragic / They call me a faggot / And me and all my women laugh at it.