Big Boi Shares His Love For Kate Bush’s ‘Running Up That Hill’ In A Resurfaced Video

Things just keep getting better and better for Kate Bush. She recently earned the first top-ten song entry of her career with “Running Up That Hill.” On this past week’s chart, the song checked in at No. 8 which gave her the highest chart position of her career, a peak that was previously No. 30 for her. The song’s resurgence is due to it playing a big role in the recently released fourth season of Stranger Things. The song’s new success has also shined a light on those who previously shared their support for the record, one of them being Big Boi.

Back in 2018, Big Boi sat down with Pitchfork for their “VERSES” series and praised the song’s production as well as Bush’s vocals. “I loved the production first and foremost because it set a tone, and then the way she was singing the songs, her voice was just angelic. I hadn’t heard anybody do it like,” he said. “It was just so weird, the sounds and what she was talking about, it was just kind of crazy, and then it was like, you know she produced all this stuff too’ so I was like, ‘Oh man!’”

Big Boi continued, “I always thought of her like the Phantom of the Opera. She’s somewhere living big castle with a piano that was ten times the size of a regular piano, playing it all day, with sheer curtains blowing in the window all, like Rapunzel but on the top of a hill somewhere in a castle, desolate, playing a piano and wailing. I thought it was cool.” He added:

For one, it was good to pedal too. It made you go fast. When the drums came on it was like a workout song. I had to ride like 20 or 30 blocks to school. So, I would just listen to it and ride, it was adventurous. The hook comes in and it makes you pedal faster. By the time I got to school, I probably sweating like I just got out of P.E. class.

You can watch the full “VERSES” episode with Big Boi in the video above.

Today in Hip-Hop History: Outkast Dropped Their Debut Album ‘Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik’ 28 Years Ago

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On this day in Hip Hop history, OutKast, the duo that helped pioneer putting southern Hip Hop on the map, released their debut classic LP, Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik.

This Dungeon Family masterpiece recorded by Andre 3000 and Big Boi paved the way for Atlanta and the rest of the Dirty South to have their unique voice in Hip Hop. Before this album, there weren’t many hit records coming from anywhere south of the Mason-Dixon line. Peaking at #20 on the Billboard 200 and being certified platinum less than a year after its release, this album’s achievements speak for themselves.

Produced completely by OutKast and Organized Noize, this project was like none before it. Its sound is perfectly described as southern rap. From the dialect to the instruments used to the references, everything about this album screams Atlanta. The smooth blues and marching band influenced beats blend with Big Boi and Andre 3000’s flows, creating something new that rippled the tide of an industry saturated with G-Funk or New York Hip Hop.

Both commercially and critically this album was immensely successful. It peaked at #20 in the Billboard 200 and #3 on the Top R&B/Hip Hop charts. This album was also the reason OutKast received the Best Newcomer Award at the 1995 Source Awards, which as we all know was met with controversy to say the least. Regardless of the haters, this album came at the beginning of the career of two rappers who changed the game forever.

The post Today in Hip-Hop History: Outkast Dropped Their Debut Album ‘Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik’ 28 Years Ago appeared first on The Source.

Hip-Hop Slang Dictionary for All the References You Need

A guide for the uninformed. Continue reading…

Big Boi And Sleepy Brown Gave A Head-Nodding Performance Of ‘Animalz’ On ‘Fallon’

You’ve really got to admire Big Boi‘s latter-career resilience. After splitting with his Outkast partner Andre 3000 in the late 2000s, he could have faded from public view like so many other rap group members or pivoted to acting as his former partner did. Instead, he only became more creative and productive, three solo studio albums and a joint EP with Phantogram titled Big Grams (he also dabbled a little in acting himself appearing in films like Baby Driver, Superfly, and most famously, ATL).

All this while consistently being underrated by fans on Twitter who constantly clamor for new Andre 3000 material while sometimes overlooking his critically-acclaimed and commercially successful solo efforts (the latest, Boomiverse, peaked at No. 28 on the Billboard 200). However, those fans have another chance to finally give Big Boi his just due with his upcoming joint project with longtime collaborator, fellow ATLien Sleepy Brown, titled The Big Sleepover.

Last night, the duo appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to debut the album’s latest single, “Animalz,” in front of an animated backdrop featuring a running tiger. With a dance-pop-centric beat and lyrics that ruminate on the nature of sex and love, the single is the latest evidence that fans should be watching Big Boi’s moves every bit as much as his erstwhile partner’s.

Watch Big Boi and Sleepy Brown perform “Animalz” on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon above.

Kate Bush and Big Boi Recorded A Song Together, But Will It Ever Be Released?

Kate Bush once famously took a 35 year hiatus from performing on stage. The iconic British singer and producer is among music’s most notorious recluses. And despite the 2016 Before The Dawn live album, has not released any music since and any news of future releases has remained consistently absent. Until now…

Appearing on The Fader Uncovered Podcast with Mark Ronson this week, Big Boi dropped a bombshell so to speak, that he had not only recorded a song with Bush (whom he idolizes), but that it’s “…a monster hit with Kate Bush — that I’m just holding.” He explained on the show that in 2014, around the time of the Outkast 20th anniversary tour and when Bush came out of that 35 year performance retirement for a 22-date run of shows at the Hammersmith Apollo in London, he and his wife went to see her live. He met Bush backstage after the show, exchanged numbers and stayed in touch. “She’s a very, very, very classy lady,” he said.

Big Boi then details a dinner he went to with Bush at a pub where they sipped “almond cognac,” before eventually working on this mysterious song. “It’s a dream come true and the people are gonna f***ing love it. It’s f***ing incredible,” he says. But he stayed coy on the song’s release, stating that “Whenever I think they deserve it, I’m gonna give it to ’em.” He also intimated that the song could be “that perfect art piece” to go with a visual component necessary for a release as an NFT.

The news of this collaboration really came out of left field, but not so much considering Big Boi looked up to Bush growing up. He revealed that Bush was one of the reasons he got into making music and that he would ride his bike to school as a kid listening to “Running Up That Hill.”

“The world gotta hear it cause it’s uplifting,” he said reflectively of the song. “It’s the last piece of the puzzle as far as my legacy goes.”