Crib Notes

Man … the scene was so thick
Low riders, ’77 Sevilles, El Dawgs
Nuttin but them ‘Lacs
All the players, all the hustlers
I’m talking ’bout a black man’s heaven here, yknahmsayin? Yeah.
— Intro to “Player’s Ball,” OutKast (1994)

DRE AND BIG

Once again, Maurice Garland delivers exclusive coverage with a behind-the-scenes peek at last Monday’s gathering of the primary members of Atlanta’s Dungeon Family at Stankonia Studios. From the photos posted, members on-hand included Goodie Mob’s Cee-Lo, Big Gipp, T-Mo and Khujo, Dre, Big Boi and Mr. DJ of OutKast, producer Ray Murray, Sleepy Brown, Witchdoctor, and plenty more. Also on hand were DJ Toomp and Spree Wilson.

As for the reason behind the reunion-of-sorts, Garland is keeping it under wraps for now. But it shall be revealed in time. Meanwhile, here’s what he had to say about how the meeting might affect DF’s musical future:

No, I don’t think a lick of music got recorded on this day. What I do know is that they had a closed-door meeting where issues were resolved and plans for the future were discussed.

I spoke with Big Boi a couple days ago and said that over the next two years we will be getting a barrage of Dungeon Family music. His solo album (expect some big news on that soon), Dre3000 solo album, a Goodie Mob album and another Outkast album are all included in that. Backbone is working right now and Witchdoctor is still dropping projects so please go out and support those.

At the end of the day, there is music recorded and ready to go from everybody for the most part, they’re all just trying to find homes (labels) for it to be put out on.

More photos below…

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How newsworthy is it that OutKast’s Andre 3000 got arrested in Henry County around 12:30 a.m. Saturday morning for driving his Porsche Carrera 109 mph on I-75?

Google “Andre 3000 arrested” and 403 relevant web results pop up.

With all the hoopla, you’d think the rapper got arrested trying to buy a cache of machine guns from a federal informant in front of Walgreen’s hours before he was scheduled to perform at the BET Awards or something. Sheesh.

A smattering of the corniest leads and headlines follows below the break.

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CL caught up with Big Boi at the Georgia Grammy nominees celebration, so we decided to test some of our upcoming Lust List questions out on him.

Name one band from the past you wish you could’ve been in?
Parliament Funkadelic

Favorite karaoke song?
“Ebony Eyes” by Rick James and Smokey Robinson

Best place in Atlanta to show out-of-towners?
Right now, Atlantic Station is pretty cool. They got a nice little vibe over there with Cirque du Soleil and everything. My all-time favorite has always been Little Five Points.

Most attractive feature on the opposite sex?
I’d have to say her brain, fa sho.

What’s the worst thing somebody can do on a date?
Not suckin’ no dick — that’s just a joke though! I don’t know, man, keep stopping by the gas station or something. Just be all the way ready.

Big Boi is nominated for Best Rap Performance By a Duo or Group for the song, “Royal Flush,” featuring Andre 3000 and Raekwon. Stay tuned for more Lust List Q&As from Georgia Grammy nominees. The 51st Annual Grammy Awards air 8 p.m. Sun., Feb. 8 on CBS. CL’s Lust List issue drops next week.

(Photo courtesy Joeff Davis)

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Big Boi’s forthcoming album, Sir Luscious Left Foot: Son of Chico Dusty has been pushed to a release date sometime next year, and will be joined by a couple of other related titles. The first of which is a new solo release from Andre 3000, which will be followed later in the year by a proper Outkast full-length.

Sir Luscious Left Foot…, it is said, will hit the streets around the first of the year and will be followed soon thereafter by Andre’s release. Who knows when the Outkast album will drop.

In the meantime Big Boi will appear in an episode of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” on Tues., Nov. 25th. MTV.com reports that in the episode Big Boi’s plays a rapper named Got’s Money who gets busted for being involved in an animal-smuggling operation and becomes an undercover informant. Sounds action packed…

(Photo courtesy Outkast)

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With Big Boi’s Sir Lucious Leftfoot … Son of Chico Dusty solo album set to drop in a few weeks, Andre Benjamin announced his plans to release an album of his own in early ‘09. Apparently, he’s looking forward to doing things on the solo tip despite the rash of high-profile collabos he’s been featured on in the past two years.

As he told Rolling Stone:

I’ve pretty much been working with myself,” he explains. “I’ve never really been that big on collaboration.” Benjamin wouldn’t reveal any other details, but he said he already had a goal and a direction for the album. “I have a concept, and all the soundscapes are already in my head, so I just have to figure out how to get there.”

When asked what he thought about the 1999 World Trade Organization protests, which is the subject of the new film, Battle in Seattle, that he stars in, Dre admitted he hadn’t heard anything about it until he read the script.

“I don’t know if I was out of the country or in the studio, but I missed it,” he explains. “The first time I heard about it was when I read the script and saw footage of what happened.”

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The nation’s economic funk has inspired a bit of uplifting funk from Big Boi.

He discussed his mission to balance bangin’ beats and lyrics with social responsibility in the lead single, “Sumthin’s Gotta Give” (featuring Mary J. Blige), from his solo album Sir Lucious Leftfoot … Son of Chico Dusty, due in October.

Apparently, it echoes OutKast’s legacy of inspiring grooves so much that Big had a hard time dropping the plural pronouns (”us,” “we”) when discussing his solo project:

“I keep saying ‘we,’ even though it’s a solo album. Me and Dre are like brothers, man. I’m putting this solo disc out, and then we’re going to come back with the next OutKast record.”

Full story here.

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(Photo taken from IGN.com)

Next month, Andre 3000 will issue … a new OutKast album? No, it’s another Hollywood confection. If you thought Four Brothers was frothy, check out Semi-Pro, a Will Farrell movie that parodies the American Basketball Association league of the ’70s. Andre Benjamin plays Clarence Coffee Black, a baller of Julius Erving proportions. The screenplay comes from Scot Armstrong, who wrote the popcorn classic Old School. Semi-Pro hits theaters on Feb. 29. Check out the trailer below.

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