Aquemini by Outkast

Aquemini, Outkast's third album, came out on LaFace and Arista in September 1998, and its title says it all: a mash-up of Aquarius and Gemini, the star signs of Big Boi and André 3000, two very different heads sharing one mic. Following the space-age drift of ATLiens, the Atlanta duo holed up in Bobby Brown's Bosstown Recording Studios and Doppler Studios, produced most of it themselves alongside Organized Noize, and let a parade of session players wander in and out.

What came back is a Southern hip-hop record that sounds alive: '70s funk, southern soul, gospel, country and acid-rock guitar played by real hands, with Raekwon, George Clinton and Erykah Badu dropping by. The rhymes swing from sci-fi to street stories to addiction and self-sabotage. It hit number two on the Billboard 200 and went double platinum by July 1999, and Rolling Stone, which put it at 500 on its greatest-albums list in 2003, bumped it up to 49 in 2020. "Rosa Parks" still bangs.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.