“We got the feel of the blues, the togetherness of funk music, the conviction of gospel music, the energy of rock, and the improvisation of jazz.”

By the summer of 1995, the Atlanta-based rap group OutKast had watched their first album, Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, achieve platinum sales of over one million. This feat earned them an award for “Best New Group” from The Source magazine and an invitation to attend the hip-hop publication’s second annual awards show in New York City. Goodie Mob, another Atlanta group, joined them on the trip up north. As Big Gipp, a member of Goodie Mob, remembered, their reception from the New York audience was less than favorable: “When Big Boi and Dre [of OutKast] got out there at those Source Awards, everybody was like, ‘boooo, boooo, boooo.’ I remember it was just OutKast and the four Goodie Mob members and I was like, man. . . . Don’t nobody even give a fuck about us folk.” Leaving the Source Awards that night, OutKast and Goodie Mob swore to each other to “show all them motherfuckers” that “one day they’re gonna have to fuck with us.”