Goodie Mob's sophomore album Still Standing stands up remarkably well to the group's much-lauded debut Soul Food, if only for the inclusion of "Black Ice" one of the more bone-chilling records to come out The Dungeon Fam catalog. Mr. DJ, a prominent member of the production company that oversaw much of OutKast's content between 95-2005, says the song almost never came to be. The beat was promised to another member of squad, but the acapella was switched out last minute, and thus a posse cut was born.
Big Gipp was one quarter of the celebrate Goodie Mob ensemble before he joined Ali & Gipp at the turn of the century, a cross-collab that created inroads between the Dungeon Fam and Murphy Lee's St. Lunatics. "Black Ice" is best remembered for Andre 3000 incredible cadence on the final verse, where he mutates William Shakespeare's famous "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears" itinerant speech.
Quotable Lyrics:
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your eardrums
It was a beautiful day off in the neighborhood
Yellows and greens and blues and browns
And greys and hues that ooze beneath dilapidated wood
Ain't a thing could explain what pertains
To cocaine and sustaining reign
See summer rolls around, n***** holla bout change
Then they steady move them keys like Bob James
-Andre 3000