The OutKast Dictionary: 38 Terms You Should Know for the Duo’s Reunion

Tonight, the seminal hip-hop group OutKast launches their improbable reunion tour at the Coachella music festival. The group, who released their debut album as teenagers twenty years ago, had an impressive decade-long run in which they rewrote the rules of hip-hop as they went along. In addition to bringing the soulful sound of southern rap to a mainstream audience with hits like “Rosa Parks,” “Ms. Jackson” and “So Fresh, So Clean,” the group is particularly known for its inventive use of language: they helped make the Southern dialect cool to fans the world over. They also really, really love portmanteaus. Before you go to one of the 40 concerts that Big Boi and Andre 3000 have planned for this year, it’s worth brushing up on your OutKast lingo a bit. Here, we present a handy guide to the people, places and phrases of one of the greatest rap acts of all time. In the words of Big Boi, this dictionary is “strictly for the Caddy lovers.”

Ain’t no thang but a chicken wang

1. An expression indicating that the issue at hand will not be problematic or difficult 2. An early OutKast song that helped popularize the phrase in the South

ATLiens

1. A portmanteau of “Atlanta” and “aliens” 2. The name of the group’s somber, spacey sophomore album 3. The coolest way to refer to yourself if you’re an Atlanta resident

Aquemini

1. A portmanteau of the Zodiac signs of Big Boi (Aquarius) and Andre 3000 (Gemini) 2. OutKast’s experimental and influential third album; Rolling Stone named it one of the 500 greatest albums of all time

Bamboo

1. Big Boi’s teenage son, who got his own song on 2003’s Speakerboxxx/The Love Below 2. The kid that will be pop-and-locking with abandon on stage during “B.O.B.”

Big Rube

1. A rapper and poet who has shown off his spoken-word skills on several OutKast albums; hopefully he’ll appear along with a full choir to perform “Liberation” on the tour

B.O.B.

1. Official name of “Bombs Over Baghdad,” the chaotic 2000 single that features a gospel choir, a guitar solo and a breakdancing monkey, all colliding together in a 155-beat-per-minute musical tour de force

Chonkyfire

1. The essence of OutKast which, when spiced with rock and roll, attracts rats, mice and snakes up out they hole in a vaguely demonic ritual 2. The closing track to Aquemini; its wailing electric guitar laid the creative groundwork for the genre-bursting “B.O.B.”

Chronomentrophobia

1. The fear of clocks; the fear of time 2. A medical condition that Andre 3000 is still trying to get formally recognized by the Center for Disease Control or the World Health Organization

The Crooked Booty

1. A little-unknown OutKast track from the 2001 Dungeon Family posse album that is actually pretty good 2. A cheesy dance performed at weddings worldwide in an alternate reality where “Crooked Booty” was included on Speakerboxx/The Love Below

Crumblin’ Erb

1. A philosophy that espouses that marijuana is a more powerful mediation tool than guns 2. A mellow track from OutKast’s debut effort; reference it at the concert to seem like an old-school fan

Dungeon Family

1. An Atlanta-based hip-hop collective that includes OutKast and Goodie Mob, along with modern stars such as Future and Janelle Monae

Fish and grits

1. A common Southern dish that has never been properly prepared in a restaurant above the Mason-Dixon line 2. A favorite meal of the duo, who equate it to “pimp s***” in their hit song “ATLiens”

Francis the Savannah Chitlin’ Pimp

1. Big Boi’s nickname, referring to his home town of Savannah, Georgia; other monikers include Chico Dusty, General Patton, Daddy Fat Sax and Hot Tub Tony; for reference, these are chitlins

Goodie Mob

1. A hip-hop group that helped pioneer the Southern hip-hop sound along with OutKast and the legendary production team Organized Noize 2. Cee Lo’s band

Hey Ya

1. An 11-year-old song that makes you depressingly aware of your own fading youth each time you hear it 2. The only song most people know by OutKast

Hootie Hoo

1. A track from OutKast’s debut album that references the White Owl cigars that the duo used to roll blunts (Andre famously gave up drugs and alcohol before the group’s 1996 album ATLiens) 2. A warning call people yell out when the police are approaching 3. A phrase ‘Kast fans may yell as a greeting; if a fellow concert goers offers you a “Hootie Hoo!” simply reply in kind

Hush That Fuss

1. To quiet a group by telling them to move to the back of the bus

Idlewild

1. A tranquil, wooded location in the novel Anne of Green Gables 2. A colloquial name for the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York 3. Something you shouldn’t expect to be referenced at any point during an OutKast concert

Kryptonite

1. A strain of marijuana so potent it has been known to knock out Superman, though not in the comic series 2. A 2005 song by Big Boi’s hip-hop supergroup the Purple Ribbon All Stars that still gets played in Atlanta’s nightclubs because it’s that hype

M-I-crooked letter

1. A reference to the completely impractical but widely known Southern method for learning how to spell Mississippi; the full phrase is ‘M-I-crooked letter-crooked letter-I-crooked letter-crooked letter-I-humpback-humpack-I” 2. A phrase Big Boi uses to refer to himself in a few early OutKast tracks, even though he’s from Savannah, Georgia

Ms. Jackson

1. The first OutKast song you ever liked, but that’s okay! It’s a great one. 2. The infamous Ms. Jackson is actually singer Erykah Badu’s mother. Badu and 3000 have a son together, but their relationship went south in the late ‘90s.

Myintrotoletuknow

1. The introductory track to OutKast’s debut album 2. The least creative of the group’s many portmanteaus 3. A great letterhead for resumes

Organized Noize

1. An Atlanta-based production team that produced many OutKast hits, such as “Player’s Ball” and “So Fresh, So Clean” 2. The team behind TLC’s “Waterfalls,” which makes them ‘90s legends

Oskie Woskie

1. An ounce of marijuana; used in in a drug deal skit on Aquemini in which Big Boi complains about price gouging from his dealer

Pimp Trick Gangsta Clique

1. A fake generic rap group created for Aquemini that serves as a foil to OutKast’s innovative but offbeat style; Andre 3000 considered making a concept album under the band’s name

Player’s Ball

1. A “black man’s heaven” that boasts chitlins (again, these are chitlins), copious amounts of marijuana and an impressive roster of Cadillacs 2. An all-time great Christmas song; it debuted on a 1993 Christmas album by LaFace Records that also featured TLC and Usher, but the sleigh bells and some holiday references were stripped from the version of the track that appeared on Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik

Possum Aloysius Jenkins

1. The weirdest nickname for Andre 3000; he also goes by Three Stacks, Ice Cold, Johnny Vulture and simply Dre

Seven

1. The teenage son of Andre 3000 and Erykah Badu, who can be heard crying at the end of the Aquemini track “Slump”; hopefully he’ll have a dance-off with Bamboo on stage

Shake it like a Polaroid picture

1. A phrase you should have stopped using in 2005

Sir Lucious Left Foot

1. One of Big Boi’s many nicknames; this one is his “Luke-Skywalker-becoming-a-Jedi persona” 2. The title of Big Boi’s excellent debut solo album, which will hopefully get some love during the concert

Sleepy Brown

1. A member of the production team Organized Noize that also sings the chorus on OutKast classics such as “The Way You Move” and “So Fresh, So Clean” 2. A man you should cheer for furiously if he makes a cameo appearance during the concert so you seem like a knowledgeable fan

Southernplayalisticadlliacmuzik

1. The greatest portmanteau of all time 2. OutKast’s debut album, which helped Southern rap gain mainstream acceptance through its introspective lyrics, soulful choruses and lush production

SpottieOttieDopaliscious

1. A description for a woman that is “superfine, bad, sexy, intelligent and jazzy all at the same time,” in the words of Big Boi. 2. OutKast composition noted for its live instrumentation, smoky horn charts and spoken word delivery; the ultimate in spaced out Southern funk

Stanklove

1. A level of funky Nirvana that OutKast ascends to on this track

Stankonia

1. A portmanteau of “stank” and “Plutonia”; refers to a futuristic place and time in which there is total freedom of expression. 2. The title of the Andre and Big Boi’s fourth outing, which cemented their legacy and garnered them two of their six Grammy Awards

Stank You Smelly Much

1. A play on the phrase “thank you very much,” that incorporates the funky theme of Stankonia; Andre 3000 “stanks” a woman on his ballad “Prototype”

Sweeter Than a Plate of Yams With Extra Syrup

1. A poetic metaphor Big Boi uses to describe his babymama on “SpotieOtieDopalicious”; she’s also “smooth like a hotcomb on nappyass hair” 2. The most romantic thing you can call your significant other

Uncle Darnell

1. A relative of Big Boi’s who was imprisoned for several years and who Big referenced on multiple albums; he’s since been released 2. A man who may appear on stage during any and all concerts on this tour; Big Boi loves a huge posse