On Saturday night, hip-hop icons (and card-carrying coolest motherfunkers on the planet) André 3000 and Big Boi of OutKast were officially inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
In his induction speech, fellow ATLien Donald Glover saluted the Atlanta duo as visionaries who’d pushed the boundaries of what was possible—not just for Southern rap but in music, period.
“A lot of Black music deals with what was, and what is, making sense of a reality we were placed in,” Donald Glover said in his induction speech. “OutKast seemed to effortlessly explore what could be. They made every experiment sound like a destiny.”
André and Big Boi were part of an inductee class that also included the White Stripes, Cyndi Lauper, Salt-n-Pepa, and Soundgarden; their portion of the ceremony was full of emotional peaks, from Tyler, the Creator tearing up the stage with an extremely dialed-in tribute performance of “B.O.B.” to Three Stacks himself tearing up for real while invoking fellow inductee Jack White’s reference to big things starting in little rooms.
But the night didn’t end there—after the ceremony, OutKast and presenting sponsor Amazon Music took over the legendary Mr. Chow in Beverly Hills for an afterparty appropriately packed with hall-of-famers, where their Dungeon Family compatriots Killer Mike, Big Gipp of Goodie Mob and Sleepy Brown celebrated alongside Janelle Monáe, Thundercat, and a host of other luminaries and acolytes.
“OutKast advanced Southern rap and music as a whole, reshaping culture through their storytelling, innovation, and creative freedom. The ways they blended genres, pushed boundaries, and spoke directly to their roots helped redefine what mainstream music could sound like, and opened doors for generations of artists to follow,” said Phylicia Fant, global head of music industry and culture collaborations at Amazon Music.
Scroll on to see everyone who pulled up to mark this milestone alongside rap’s most legendary duo.
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