Outkast’s Big Boi and Phantogram Explain How Collaborations Thrive

Jay Z and Kanye West. Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye. Drake and Future. Elton John and Leon Russell.

Album collaborations can either be bang or bust. Take two artists with distinct styles, throw them into a studio, and hope that magic happens.

With Outkast’s Big Boi and Sarah Barthel and Josh Carter of Phantogram, creating that magic was organic and effortless. “We started communicating via Twitter because Big Boi found one of our songs online,” explained Barthel. After a bit of freaking out and some 5 years later, they came together in a super collaboration called Big Grams, which is also the name of their new album.

Big Boi’s style ranges from the sound he was essential in pioneering for the Atlanta hip hop scene, to the funky-synths found on his solo debut Sir Lucious Leftfoot: The Son of Chico Dusty. Phantogram’s music, on the other hand, is rooted in the outrageously catchy melodies of electronic-pop. So how does a collaboration work when the sounds are so fundamentally different? Big Grams explains in the video above.