Over the weekend, in some sand-blasted bro-infested hell pit in the Southern California desert, Andre Benjamin and Antwan Patton reunited onstage for the first time in 12 years. If you haven't yet, and you like fish and grits and all that pimp shit, you can watch the whole 90-minute set below.
There's been a lot said about the lack of crowd connection, but consider that the majority of the crowd was 12 at best when Outkast was at its Speakerboxxx/The Love Below heights; the majority of people who enjoyed them in high school and such are too broke, old, or just over festival life to be up front spazzing out at $300 a pop. I'd asume that a lot of the kids who grew up during the boy-band era of the early 2000s maybe remember "Hey Ya" and missed Idlewild's charms completely; the non-hiphop heads of that set would hardly be compelled to pick up Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, unless they had an older sibling or mentor there to beat some goddamn sense into them. It makes more sense for them, then, to dress like the Ultimate Warrior (RIP) and "dance" onstage for Girl Talk.
That said—the two ran through their set in simple style, seeming in sync, Andre 3000 punctuating verses with his trademark Stankonia-era yelp. Big Boi definitely sounded more polished, but he never stopped rocking stages. As for Andre's occasional pleas for "more in the monitor" and musings if the crowd were alive or not—that's all part of the festival experience, right? (While I wish that 'Kast had skipped the dusty-foot festival circuit for their reunion and just staged a Yeezus-scale arena tour for their own, I'm guessing the money is better in wristband-land.)
The Dungeon Family was definitely in effect, as Sleepy Brown joined them onstage, and Janelle Monae, who came in the game as a signee to Big Boi's Purple Ribbon label, strutted out to perform their "Tightrope." Third generation DF member Future made an appearance, performing three cuts off of his upcoming sophomore album Honest, which you can stream in full right now, by the way. Killer Mike tried to get some bars in via the finale "The Whole World" but his mic and the music was unceremoniously cut off. "They wouldn't have done that to Arcade Fire," one Twitter user noted.
I'm praying—or my version of praying, that is—that they keep it together for the entirety of their 40+ festival tour schedule. (Especially so I can see them at the Gorge for Sasquatch—the last time they were there, during 1998's KUBE93 Summer Jam, I was on all of the mushrooms and could barely visually process them at their mutant Aquemini-era best.) For extra credit, I ask that the Universe helps Andre finds a new appreciation for tour life, that 'Kast hit a new productive stride, and that the greatest duo in hiphop (not named Run-DMC) chooses not to again forsake the world, this whole world that hardly deserves them, Amen.
B.O.B.
Gasoline Dreams
ATLiens
Skew It on the Bar-B
Rosa Parks
Da Art of Storytellin', Part 1
Aquemini
SpottieOttieDopaliscious (with Sleepy Brown)Big Boi solo set
Bowtie (with Sleepy Brown)
Shutterbugg
GhettoMusick
Tightrope (with Janelle Monáe)
Kryptonite (I'm on It)André 3000 solo
She Lives in My Lap
Prototype
Behold a LadyOutKast
Roses
Same Damn Time (with Future)
Ain't No Way Around It (with Future)
Benz Friendz (Whatchutola) (with Future)
Hootie Hoo
Elevators (Me & You)
Ms. Jackson
So Fresh, So Clean (with Sleepy Brown)
The Way You Move (with Sleepy Brown)
Hey Ya!
