DX: You and Dre have redefined style with your clothes and the hair, with “So Fresh, So Clean” being one of your biggest hits coming out. How do you feel about the new trend of dressing different? Does it coincide with the music in any way?
BB: It depends on the artist man, like some artists… well a lot of artists have stylists and that’s why many artists have that bandanna and shit around their neck. You have a lot of artists that look alike. Of course, me and Dre [click to read], we’ve never had stylists. We styled ourselves from the beginning. What our thing was, we always wanted to look like the music and portray a certain part of the music from the way we dress. As far as everybody else, you never know… A lot of labels out here have a stylist and they’re not picking out their own clothes and wouldn’t even know about what they’re putting on.

DX: For the fans who are coming around or people who may not be hardcore OutKast fans, were does the name Sir Luscious Left Foot come from?
BB: Actually, we definitely consider ourselves hip-hop royalties, so [Sir] Luscious Left Foot is basically the “Knight in Rhyming Armor.” I started out 15, 16 years old and I went from a boy to a man now so Luscious is the most serious of my mind and that’s what I’m going to run with right now. And Left Foot being that we always put our best foot forward. It’s just a change. I’ve grown up and I’m still a deadly emcee, a lyrical assassin – whoever wants some will get some.

DX: That brings me to the MTV Hottest MC's list… Is this album going to be your ‘Lupe Fiasco’…? He wasn’t on there for the first go ‘round, but then homie dropped The Cool and then they put him on. How do you feel about lists?
BB: The whole thing about lists and the whole nine yards with us is like, man, we don’t give a fuck about no lists. We got history! We’ve been proven, tested and guaranteed. We have a career that’s outlasted most people in the game right now. We’ve sold over 50 million records worldwide, so to me, a list is a list. Some people put a list together, they do that because that’s their thing, but to us it’s not about who’s the best and who’s this. Everybody got an opinion and everybody got an asshole, so they can take that list and shove it up their ass. I don’t give a shit about no list.

DX: I guess when you guys released the double set album, Speakerboxx/The Love Below, people were thinking that this was it for OutKast; that you guys were fighting, tired of each other and were going to call it quits. Will there ever be a day where you say you know the rap shit was cool, but just want to move on to your own individual businesses full-time?
BB: Not right now, not that I can see. They’ve been saying we were breaking up since before Speakerboxx/Love Below [click to read]. We put out five albums – five records since then and I think the whole breaking up thing ain’t nothing but a little conversation piece people put together. The only thing we can do and the only thing we can say is that we’ve grown. I’ve been a friend, best friend and brother to Dre since teenagers. I’ve slept on his bedroom floor throughout my high school years. We were already brothers before this music thing came and now that people don’t see us together as much, they think a certain way. But you know people get a little bit older and there are certain things they’d like to pursue, you know, like movies, starting your own clothing line, having your own business or just doing different things. We’re not joined at the hip, if you don’t see us together, you just don’t see us together. It’s OutKast till we die, buddy, we got the Big Boi album coming out then we got the Dre album coming out. And then we putting an OutKast album out after that. People could keep saying we breaking up, it just brings press and it’s good.

DX: You recently had your listening party in New York – what did you hope the people expected and what do you want the fans to get ready for?
BB: I’m just played the album for them and they can take what they want to take from it. The process has been nothing more different than working on Stankonia [click to read]. It’s just all Big Boi. It was really like Speakerboxx was the solo album, my first solo album, but this is the first one that’s going to be released by itself. You’re gonna get me. It’s Big Boi to the extreme, the way I feel; how I like my music and different instrumentation, the Funk, the Blues, Reggae, the whole nine yards. I’m going to give you all of that. Expect the unexpected ‘cause that’s what I always give.

DX: Anything else coming out of the Dungeon Family that people should be taking a look at?
BB: Most definitely, you got that Goodie Mob album coming out soon! Yeah, the reunion is in effect. You also got my artist, Janelle Monae [click to read]; me and Puffy did a deal and he came through and wanted to work with her, so we did a deal at Universal. Continued on page 3 »