College paper analyzing the Atlanta-based rap group, Outkast

Elevating your Hip Hop Knowledge (and my Grade)

In the Outkast song, “Elevators (Me and You),” rappers Big Boi and Andre 3000 describe their upbringings in Atlanta, their current professional rapping prospects (1995), and their goals for their hip hop careers in the future. Southern rappers were beginning to get recognition in the 1990s, but no hip hop groups had taken center stage until Outkast began recording songs. “Elevators (Me and You)” is noteworthy because it helped legitimize and popularize Atlanta-based hip hop, which in turn created a new market for southern rap. The song demonstrates how the south has adopted various American ideologies and has created its own unique culture. Influenced by friends (the Dungeon Family) and family, and their appreciation for their surroundings, Big Boi and Andre 3000 were at the forefront of Atlanta rap’s inception into pop culture.

Growing up in Atlanta, Andre Benjamin (Andre 3000) and Antwon Patton (Big Boi) met while attending Tri-Cities High School in East Point, Georgia in 1990. They participated in rap battles during lunch, and “develop[ed] a respect for one another’s lyrical skills” (Hess, Icons of Hip Hop, 458). Benjamin and Patton soon formed the group “2 Shades Deep,” and were eventually introduced to the producer group, Organized Noize. Benjamin and Patton renamed themselves Outkast in 1992, which referenced the Atlanta rap scene emerging as an alternative to the east coast and west coast rapper communities. Outkast subsequently signed with LaFace Records in 1992, and “became part of a larger [Atlanta] hip hop collective called the Dungeon Family” (Hess, Icons of Hip Hop, 458).

After releasing their initial album, “Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik,” in 1994, Outkast released its second album, “ATLiens,” in 1996, with the most admired song in the album being “Elevators (Me and You).” “ATLiens” was extremely popular, and was considered by many to have an enormous, positive effect on the Atlanta rap scene moving forward (Coker, Los Angeles Times). In addition, the album’s success helped the group reach fans all over the country, even in areas on the east coast and west coast where there initially wasn’t a big outside hip hop influence.

The lyrics of “Elevators (Me and You)” emphasize Outkast’s southern past because Big Boi and Andre 3000 are constantly referring to the Dungeon Family and the surrounding Atlanta area where they grew up. At the beginning of the song, the duo mentions “Headland and Delowe,” which was the strip center where the rappers met Rico Wade (Outkast, “Elevators (Me and You”). Wade was a producer from the group Organized Noize who would eventually help create and perfect Outkast’s music. Referencing places in rap songs is beneficial to social perception of the rappers if fans can relate to their background (Cheyne and Binder, Cosmopolitan Preferences, 341). However, unlike the beginnings of New York and Los Angeles rap, which was started as “a vehicle for the young and disenfranchised,” Andre 3000 and Big Boi began their careers with mellow lyrics and beats that emphasize their southern heritage (Bonette, Pulse of the people, 8). Instead of complaining, both rappers sing about their friends, family, and their past with high praise. The slow beat and uplifting memories are classic southern ideals because the south is known to move at a slower pace than the rest of America. Their lyrics thus proved to be southern, and were much different than other hip hop songs that had been released from other parts of the United States.

Later in the verse, the lines “now everyday we looked up at the ceiling watching ceiling fans go” reference the duo’s religious views. The verse continues with Andre 3000 singing that they were “writing rhymes, trying to find our spot off in the light.” When they look up at the ceiling the rappers are being guided by the “light” to meet and exercise their talents. Furthermore, the mentioning of Decatur, GA, which is known as a very religious city (motto: “a city of homes, schools, and places of worship”) near the Atlanta area, also implies that Andre 3000 and Big Boi are spiritual (“Decatur”). Black religion became important “as soon as Africans arrived on the soil of the British colonies,” and traditionally, many hip hop songs have contained religious allusions (“Breaking Bread, Breaking Beats,” 2). The duo includes religion in their song because they want to appeal to their fans, who were predominantly southern African Americans. Also, because other rappers around the country had success with religious lyrics, Outkast knew that this could be well received. However, the rappers southernized the religion mentioned in the song by relating the lyrics directly back to Atlanta when the rappers associate their hard work and struggles with staying true to themselves and their African American, southern roots.

Connecting the song with Outkast’s early development, the line “we make the crowd move, but we not making no G’s” implies that they were popular among their peers and people within the immediate Atlanta area, but because the rappers were having trouble expanding out of the south, they weren’t making a lot of money. This is also significant because there weren’t any extremely popular southern hip hop groups prior to Outkast’s and the Dungeon Family’s inception, so they couldn’t rise to fame as easily as groups from the west coast or the east coast. This turns into a narrative in the next verse when the duo raps that “locales done made it with them big boys up in the industry” and they were eventually able to put the “south up on the map.” They compare their popularity in southern rap to “Little Rock” because the rappers are referencing the first black students that enrolled at Little Rock Central High School in 1957. Both the desegregation of the high school and the unprecedented popularity of Outkast and eventually the rest of the Atlanta-based hip hop groups were landmark events in the southern United States.

The chorus is note-worthy because it emphasizes friends and surroundings as the key to why Outkast became successful. The lines, “me and you… Your momma and your cousin too” imply that with the rappers’ success, the entire Atlanta area will also be successful. Outkast is taking the whole community with them while the duo is “rolling down the strip on Vogues,” and symbolically becoming prosperous. The reference to family also serves as an underlying theme throughout the song. Families, friends, and the black community are very close in Atlanta, which is one of the reasons why it is a great city, and one of the reasons why the rappers became successful. Outkast’s close bond with the Dungeon Family helped the friends avoid legal obstacles early on in their careers (Jones, “The Art of Organized Noize”). Accoding to CeeLo Green, being a member of the Dungeon Family “saved [his] life” (Jones, “The Art of Organized Noize”). The Dungeon Family, similar to the traditional African American community in the south, was very supportive of one another.

The mention of a “Cadillac” in the chorus is significant because it is an adoption of an American artifact that wasn’t originally created in the south, but has become southernized. Cadillacs suggest the rappers’ affinity for the car, and refers to Outkast’s first album, which is titled “Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik.” Cadillacs have become popular within the southern hip hop community because the brand is a sign of wealth and enjoyment, and because it is a “communal car” (Brown, “Drive Slow,” 272). This relates directly to Outkast’s promotion of family and friends, which the duo promotes as a southern ideal. The car is considered “communal” because Outkast invites many people to ride in the car with them to metaphorically share in the good fortune, and the rappers never indicate the owner of the car. Bringing in the social aspect of the Cadillac, and associating the car with southern rap has made it a southern cultural product.

Although social activism and crime had a big influence on main stream rap at the time, Andre 3000 and Big Boi didn’t engage in these activities so they could stay out of trouble and continue to make music. The rappers did normal things that middle-class kids would do, such as eat at “Rally’s” and “get stoned like them white boys.” The duo’s individualism led them to follow their passions and start to perform hip hop, which was against societal norms in the south at the time. Outkast ambiguously continues the verse by singing “we moving on up in the world like elevators” because their hip hop and individualism will help bring “[change] in the hood” for themselves, their friends and family, and the rest of the population. This is another example of the rappers promoting friends, family, and community togetherness as a southern ideal because they hold the Atlanta population as one entity that relies on one another. This is much different from the east coast and the west coast where there is a lot of community conflict mentioned in hip hop songs.

In the final verse Andre 3000 sings about going to a mall near where the rappers grew up and running into an old classmate. The classmate praises them, but Andre 3000 says that students from their school have “all been going through the same things,” and Outkast is still working to make it big. This is significant because the rappers have continued to stay close to their roots while they are on the verge of stardom, and have not altered their lifestyles or music drastically since they have become popular. Outkast has also sustained its relationship with Atlanta, which in turn has helped it create its own brand of music and pave the way for Atlanta-based rap to become accepted. Andre 3000 and Big Boi continue to appeal to their fans because the rappers appear to be working-class people. The line “I live by the beat, like you live check-to-check” captures their hardworking attitudes, something that people from East Point and other white collar areas of the south value.

“Elevators (Me and You)” is a song that envelopes the southern culture. Although the south is similar to other parts of the United States, the region has its own unique aspects and ideals. However, the south has been rejected in numerous instances for many reasons stemming from these differences. Outkast sings about the goal to popularize southern music, and with it, make Atlanta more successful and integrated into the rest of American society. This goal did come to fruition in some aspects, as “Elevators (Me and You) was considered by many to be the most successful Outkast song of the 1990s, which was the time period when the rappers hit worldwide popularity. This also helped paved the way for Atlanta to emerge as one of the premier hip hop cities in the world.

Word Count: 1991