When talented teenaged school kids André Benjamin and Antwan Patton first met each other at Atlanta's Lenox Square shopping mall in 1992, they couldn't have possibly envisioned the journey that their friendship and, soon, genre-altering musical partnership would take. Under the banner of Outkast, André 3000 and Big Boi wouldn't just put Southern hip hop on the map, upending the East and West Coast monopoly of 90s rap in the process, but would forge one of the most adventurous and influential discographies in all of modern music.
Over the course of six albums, Outkast would both define the Dirty South movement and transcend it, André's insatiable appetite for experimentation and genre-fusing exploration seeing the duo tackle all manner of sonic left-turns, always looking forwards but forever grounded by both 'Dre's unique, whimsical flow and Big Boi's bulletproof, smoother-than-silk bars. Incredibly, it's been 18 years since we got a new Outkast album, but their influence remains as central to hip hop as ever. Here, then, is every Outkast LP so far, ranked from worst to best.
