Outkast’s Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik turned 20 today (April 26) as MySpace Music released an anniversary piece focused on the Atlanta duo’s debut album’s impact on all different types of rappers.
Mississippi native David Banner said the album was one that changed his life.
“Hearing ‘Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik’ was literally life-changing for me,” He said when asked about the song “Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik.” “People don’t do a lot of research on my background—I started off as a staunch Hip Hop fan and I started realizing that Hip Hop wasn’t exactly what I’d dreamed it to be. There was still some discrimination and some confining elements to something that I had believed to be so liberating and so free. This was the total synthesis of what I dreamed Hip Hop to be: It had the grooves, it had the aura of Hip Hop, but it came from a pure Southern perspective.”
Gary, Indiana native Freddie Gibbs said the album had a literal impact on his career as he named one of his projects after it.
“I was inspired to call my mixtape Midwestgangstaboxframecadillacmuzik by this title,” Gibbs said. “I just wanted to pay homage and show that I could do it as well. The title track is my favorite song on the album. [Sings] “We’re gonna get you high…” I like that shit with the singing and the whole melodic vibe of OutKast. It wasn’t just a rap album—it was something that brought you into this world and this vibe.”
Three 6 Mafia member Gangsta Boo, who was featured on OutKast’s fourth album, Stankonia, said Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik took her to Atlanta even though she was in her hometown of Memphis when the album dropped.
“I was wishing I lived in Atlanta when I first heard it! I was living in Memphis at the time,” she said. “It made me feel like a very Southern girl. The production stamped the South, it gave the South a sound—they were one of the originators of the Southern sound.”
Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik was released on April 26, 1994 and is often considered as one of the greatest Southern Hip Hop albums of all time. Complex recently ranked the album 51 on its “90 Best Rap Albums of the ’90s.” MySpace also talked to Big K.R.I.T., B.o.B., Rittz, Bubba Sparxxx, and Trae Tha Truth for the article.
