While Big Boi has fully embraced a solo career, Andre 3000 has kept to the shadows, appearing only once or twice a year to remind everyone that he is one of the greatest (if not THE greatest) rappers of all-time, and can still paint vivid and complex lyrical portraits with ease. "My oral illustration be like clitoral stimulation."
This list primarily revisits the four albums Outkast albums released from 1994-2000 Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, ATLiens, Aquemini, & Stankonia. Click through to listen to Andre's best verses from that era.
Honorable Mention
"Aint No Thang"
"Synthesizer"
"Da Art of Storytelling Part 2"
"D.E.E.P." (2nd verse)
A 18-year-old Andre dishes wisdom, critiquing consumer culture and popular perceptions of the hood. Off Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik... which earned Outkast "Best Newcomer" -- and a shower of boos -- at the 1995 Source Awards.
Quotables
Oh, step in my Cadillac, let's ride through the hood
Eh, why don't you roll that window down so you can see it real good
And take a look at all the pimps and all the pushers and the players
That's living on a whim, thin ice and a prayer
Goodie Mob - "Though Process" feat. Andre 3000
Andre joins fellow Atlanta crew Goodie Mob, foreshadows the mode of thinking and metaphors that would inform ATLiens.
Quotables
Like elevators but I ain't the one that's pushin' the buttons
I got off at the 13th floor, when they told me that it wasn't one
They said it skipped from 12 to 14
Still smoking, still drinking
No I'm sittin' on the Lincoln 4 AM thinking
That in reality the world is like a ball full of players
We trapped off in this maze with walls made of layers
"Elevators (Me & You)" (2nd verse)
Andre argues that the daily struggle and the burdens of life are almost universal. There's a reason this song was the last thing we heard in the first season of 'Atlanta.'
Quotables
And I replied that I had been going through the same things that he had
True, I've got more fans than the average man
But not enough loot to last me
To the end of the week, I live by the beat
Like you live check-to-check
If it don't move your feet then I don't eat
So we like neck-to-neck
Yes, we done come a long way like them slim-ass cigarettes
From Virginia, this ain't gon' stop, so we just gon' continue
"ATLiens" (1st verse)
Andre meditates on the plight of black folk and concludes that the only solution is to "throw your hands to the aye-yer."
Quotables
The future of the world depends on
If or if not the child we raise gon have that nigga syndrome
Or will it know to beat the odds regardless of the skin tone?
Or will it feel that if we tune it, it just might get picked on?
Or will it give a fuck about what others say and get gone?
"Babylon" (1st verse)
Andre talks about his mother, who was addicted to drugs when pregnant with him, and puts the drug use and insecurities of individual Americas in the context of the almighty power of The Man. "I fear the battle's just begun"...
Quotables
I came into this world high as a bird
From second hand cocaine powder
I know it sounds absurd
I never tooted but its in my veins
While the rest of the country bungies off bridges
Without no snap back
And bitches they say they need that
To shake they fannies in the
Ass clubs
"13th Floor/Growing Old" (1st verse)
Andre gets hit with severe wave of nostalgia while driving through his native East Point.
Quotables
Suppose
We rolls through Headland and Delowe
Where me and my niggas would pass the flow
And got down for ours like hind catchers
My mind catches flashbacks to the black past
While mind close niggas laugh at
The Southern slang, finger waves and Mojo chicken wangs
I grew up on booty shake we did not know no better thang
"Return of the G"
After taking a philosophical turn on ATLiens, Andre returns to rapping about gangsterism, albeit from an entirely different angle than his vantage point on Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik.
Quotables
Return of the gangsta, thanks ta'
Them niggas that think you soft
And say y'all be gospel rappin'
But they be steady clappin' when you talk about
Bitches, and switches, and hoes, and clothes, and weed
Let's talk about time travelin', rhyme javelin
Somethin' mind unravelin', get down
"Aquemini" (2nd verse)
Andre ponders systems of faith, reconciling the twin personalities native to any Gemini.
Shoutout his other 'Aquemini" verse, which is also great.
Quotables
Sin all depends on what you believing in
Faith is what you make it, that's the hardest shit since MC Ren
Alien can blend right on in with your kin
Look again, cause I swear I spot one every now and then
It's happening again, wish I could tell you when
"Da Art of Storytelling Part 1"
Andre shows off his storytelling chops, casually recalling the tale of a young love from his past who would later die of a heroin overdose. So it goes...
Quotables
But in spite of all of the bullshit we on our back staring at the stars above
Talking bout what we gonna be when we grow up
I said what you wanna be, she said, "Alive"
It made me think for a minute, then looked in her eyes
I could have died, time went on, I got grown
Rhyme got strong, mind got blown, I came back home
To find lil' Sasha was gone
Her mamma said she with a nigga that be treating her wrong
"Bombs Over Baghdad" (1st verse)
Andre thumps his chest and eventually delves into the woes of life in the hood that "make a nigga wanna stay on tour for days" before encouraging folks back home to take it easy on themselves. "Hello, ghetto, let your brain breathe."
Quotables
Inslumnational, underground
Thunder pounds when I stomp the ground
Like a million elephants and silverback orangutans
You can't stop a train