OutKast has been awarded countless accolades and trophies during their tenure as one of Hip Hop’s premiere groups. But the duo has never had a Diamond single — until now.
On Friday (December 13), the group’s 2003 track “Hey Ya!” was certified Diamond (sales of 10 million units) by the RIAA — the first song by the iconic ATLiens to reach that milestone.
The album on which the song appears, Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, went Diamond less than 15 months after its September 2003 release.
“Hey Ya!” was written and performed by André 3000. It was nominated for three Grammys, winning one. It topped the Billboard singles chart for nine weeks from mid-December, 2003 to early February, 2004.
While the track going Diamond is good news for OutKast fans, there was some disappointing information about the group that dropped this week as well: André made it clear that there won’t be a reunion any time soon, noting that he and Big Boi are “further away than ever” from making a new album.
3 Stacks sat down for an in-depth interview with Rolling Stone published on Thursday (December 12), where he was asked about the possibility of a new album from the iconic duo or at the least, a new tour. It’s looking bleak for both.
“I’ll say maybe 10, 15 years ago, in my mind, I thought an OutKast album would happen,” he said. “I don’t know the future, but I can say that we’re further away from it than we’ve ever been. I think it’s a chemistry thing. We have to be wanting to do it. It’s hard for me to make a rap, period, you know? And sometimes I’m in the belief of ‘Let things be.’
“It was a great time in life, and our chemistry was at a certain place that was undeniable. And I think the audience sometimes believes that something has to last forever, and I don’t think that. Any kind of art form, I think that’s probably the opposite. It probably should not last forever. It’s not like a product. In the end, we did give a product, but what made that product was a certain time in both of our lives.”
And to think, the record label almost didnt want to have it included on the album at all and definetly not as a single. Andre knew what he was doing though!
He may very well knew it would sell but the labels were right for once career-wise/artistically. It’s a dreadfully annoying repetitive terrible song and one of the biggest stains on OutKast’s career. Kind of like Pharrell’s Happy. It was one the ugliest heights of the beginning of rap/hip-hop’s colonization into Pop.
Hey ya was dope. Foh
That was the start to the colonization of hip hop? Not vanilla ice? You way off in history, and to say the stain on that artists career wasn’t the flute album means you know jack shit.
@That’s @Sef Your logic is erroneous and you can’t read, and your taste is trash. Hey Ya wasn’t even hip-hop. It was a trash pop song. Speakerboxxx/The Love Below is easily their worst album which dropped in 2000. Ice Ice Baby dropped in 1990. So yes, the first 10 years of a specific 34 year period of peak pop colonization can easily be argued to be a beginning especially when you factor in the word heights as in peak examples. Majority of the music in 80s/90s was dope. Thanks also. You just reinforced my point without knowing it lol.
*Hey Ya was written in 2000, even though it technically dropped in 2003, still was the beginning of the peak hip-hop to pop stage and the beginning of the shitty end of OutKast who were amazing up until that specific album
B
First Outkast song to go diamond is an Outkast song by contractual name obligation only.
I agree with C. As far as OutKast tracks go, it’s as close to a low point as it gets for the duo. I know how backwards labeling the most successful ($ales-wise) track of their career their lowest point may come off to some, who may point to the numbers as evidence against the claim. To which I’d respond that the album it appeared on was the beginning of the end for one of the best hip hop duos ever (I personally don’t really count the soundtrack for Idlewild, so for me Speakerboxxx/The Love Below *was* the end of OutKast) and I believe the success of “Hey Ya!” to be partly to blame for the fact that they may never perform or make music again (while refraining from commenting on what society at large laps up and deems “good” and its relation to the intrinsic value of it).
(continued in reply)
I keep getting “Error Code: 500” but the gist was that he’s super committed to his craft, being authentic and above all artistic integrity. For a throwaway track on a throwaway album to eclipse all prior work that did have artistic value, someone like him has got to start questioning the point.
Nope you wrong af…..listen to the song again not just the chorus….for Andre to say they are further away from it…that was heart breaking af too. Big Boi did something to him though because this isn’t them at all I don’t like this i hope and pray to my ancestors that these two men patch it up.