Big Boi

As one half of the legendary OutKast, Big Boi helped show the world the U.S. South had something to say. Born Antwan André Patton in 1975, he began his professional rap career after meeting eventual groupmate André 3000 at Tri-Cities High School near Atlanta. As OutKast, they released a series of albums that were usually as critically acclaimed as they were commercially successful, with their 2003 double album, Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, winning the 2004 Grammy Award for Album of the Year before being RIAA-certified Diamond. While Big Boi was less flamboyant than his eccentric rhyme partner, his raps were no less dynamic, and beginning in 2010, he brought his own idiosyncratic stylings to his solo LPs. In albums like Sir Lucious Left Foot... The Son of Chico Dusty (2010), Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors (2012) and BOOMIVERSE (2017), he flaunted both technical mastery and a penchant for sonic experimentation. Adventurous, charismatic and endlessly dexterous, Big Boi is a rap blue blood whose art proves the majesty of Atlanta.