Aquemini
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Aquemini was a 1998 album by the rap group OutKast. Distinctly Dirty South, OutKast (Big Boi, Andre Benjamin) has done much to increase the critical viability of Southern hip hop. This album specifically was critically acclaimed virtually across the map, for innovate, natural rhymes and funky, characteristically Southern beats, courtesy of Organized Noize, the record producers Guests include Witchdocter, Masai, Erykah Badu and George Clinton. The album was certified platinum in November of 1998, two months after it was released, then certified double platinum in July of 1999. On the Billboard music charts, Aquemini peaked at #2. Producers on the album include Babyface and Organized Noize, as well as Andre and Big Boi themselves on nine out of the fourteen tracks.
OutKast (Andre and Big Boi) had released their previous album, ATLiens to much fanfare, though fans were somewhat confused by the stoned, alien funk of that, the duo's second album. Aquemini (a combination of the two performers' Zodiac signs: Aquarius (Big Boi) and Gemini (Andre)) is a vaguely futuristic, synthesizer-drenched album punctuated with anthemic choruses and bluesy beats, as well as a memorable spoken word poem in the song "Liberation". The album is defiantly Southern in sound and tone, with the group making no apologies for their origin in Atlanta, Georgia. In contrast to much of hip hop in the late 1990s, OutKast refused to tone down the regional qualities, leading to the harmonica break on "Rosa Parks" and distinctively Southern slang and diction throughout. At the time, mainstream rap was almost entirely West Coast or East Coast, both dominated by a monolothic style of production and delivery. OutKast's sound, while outwardly similar to some other Southern rappers like Master P or Goodie Mob, was distinct, yet hook-laden and accessible, and sounded fresh at a time of stagnation in the hip hop community.
Key songs: "Rosa Parks", "Liberation", "Skew It On the Bar-B", "SpottieOttieDopaliscious", "Synthesizer"
The intro is called "Hold on, Be Strong"; it is an ominous and forbidding orchestral wordless-chant, setting the tone and pace for the rest of the album.
"Return of the 'G'" begins with a portentous, booming beat and Dre rapping about his desire for a peaceful life and criticizing "them niggas that's on that blow", irresponsible parents and role models, and hypocrites who claim to be "gospel-rapping/but they be steady clappin' when you talk about/bitches & switches & hoes & clothes & weed". Dre suggests, in typical out-of-control speed characteristic of this group, "let's talk about time travelin' rhyme javelin/somethin' mind unravelin' get down". The song ends with skit where a man tries to sell "a couple of thugs" a black-market OutKast CD (actually this one). One of the thugs complains "First they was some pimps, then some aliens or some genies or something, then they be talking about that black righteous space. I don't want them any more" (this refers to Southernplayalisticadillacmuzak and ATLiens).
"Rosa Parks", named after the legendary civil rights activist Rosa Parks, is a funky, catchy song rooted in the bluesy chorus "Ah ha, hush that fuss/Everybody move to the back of the bus/Do you wanna bump and slump with us/We the type of people make the club get crunk" and verses describing a bizarre, psychedelic experience with a Gypsy woman who gives him advice: "she hipped me to some life game/To stimulate then activate the left and right brain". She advises Big Boi that "yo only just as funky as yo last cut/You focus on the past your ass'll be a has what". The song ends with a powerful harmonica break. After the song, there is a humorous skit where Andre and Big Boi discuss the fundamentals of the hip hop business, in some ways summarizing the Gypsy woman's advice from the song. Some time after the release of the single, Rosa Parks herself attempted to sue the group for using her name without permission; the case was dismissed. The song was later nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rap Performancy by a Duo or Group
"Skew It on the Bar-B" is one of the most beloved songs off the album, with a head-bopping beat and catchy chorus combined with intelligent and witty verses, including a very memorable turn by Raekwon (of The Wu-Tang Clan), concluding with a climactic staccato "Glocks blows leave em baggy and collect spot grows/Keep a watch froze, lean on the yacht and wash clothes/Let the chop' blow, bag a half a block plot grows, what?". The chorus, "Old school players to new school fools/'Kast keep it jumpin like kangaroos/but skew it on the bar-b we ain't tryin to lose/Say 'I be got damnit they done changed the rules'", is hard and funky, and this song was the second big hit off the album.
The title track is a slow, mellow beat as the duo of Andre and Big Boi describe their relationship, and timely matters of racial politics. "Twice upon a time there was a boy who died twice/and lived happily ever after but that's another chapter/live from home of the brave with dirty dollars/& beauty parlors & baby bottles & bowling ball Impalas/& street scholars that's majoring in culinary arts/You know how to work bread cheese & dough" " is a distinctly OutKast verse, with the endless list of assonating items, some strangely juxtaposed ("bowling ball Impalas") or a play on words, as in "culinary arts...bread, cheese & dough" (all slang terms for cash). The song climaxes at a false ending, right before the beginning of the second verse. OutKast's spacey, self-referential lyrics can be exemplified by the the song, when Andre raps "Alien can blend right on in wit' yo' kin/look again 'cause I swear I spot one every now & then/It's happenin' again wish I could tell you when/Andre this is Andre y'all just gon' have to make amends", referencing back to the previous alien-themed album, ATLiens.
"Synthesizer" is an apocalyptic, foreboding song with a memorable guest spot from legendary funkster George Clinton. Lyrically, this is one of the album's most well-developed songs. The first verse focuses on Andre Benjamin, singing about a lonely man in some un-named city, with an aimless life "Life is made of half illusion (illusion)/Forty percent confusion (confusion)". The parentheticals here and throughout the verse are George Clinton, in the background and seem to be almost sarcastic, pessimistic comments on the subject's extreme poverty, despair and hunger. In the second verse, Big Boi criticizes an ill-tempered thug, warning him "...niggaz think about the trigger before you pull it, on liquor stores and banks/Them folks got more than enough bullets to put that ass/off in the slang, don't claim no gang". then, a young sounding girl's voice comes on, reading, in what seems to be a news report, an advertisement for a special on the dangers of technology, asking "Dr. Scholl's, or Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde?/Are we digging into new ground/or digging our own graves? Story at 11". This is followed by an old verse from George Clinton (originally off The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein), where he expresses doubt about the value of modern society's banality and oppression with the almost apathetic and bored: "Conceived under the influence of toxic wasted doctors/Computer buggin debuggin device-a and vice versa/and various viruses/Performing with laser-like precision a verbal incision/For a lingustic ballistic lobotomy/Mind-fuckin you, a psycho-sodomy/of the medula oblongata/Accept your mind down your spine and out your behind/Fuck you". The last rapped verse consists of Big Boi expressing his own doubts about a new "synthesized" future where racial and cultural identity mean nothing ("My, nose ain't right/Like I need a new one/Just take your pick, a yellow red/A black or a blue one" and "Synthesizer preachers can reach you/up in the pulpit"). He is angry at the swiftly-moving and uncontrollable world ruled by an elite that maintains the status quo: "Thought provokin records radio never played dem/Instant, quick grits, new, improved/Hurry hurry, rush rush, world on the move/Marijuana illegal but cigarettes cool". The last sung verse, by George Clinton, is an ode to "Cybersexy Wendy", beginning with Clinton's trademark juxtaposition of two disparate elements: sex and computers, in this case: "Ghetto boy horny tonight/SCSI with a booty in a cage/Problem sinkin down and stretchin out". After the song is another humorous skit, where Andre attempts to buy marijuana off his dealer, haggles over the price and leaves without buying anything.
"Slump" is an anthemic, sing-along recollection of older and better times, reminisces of a romanticized version of the past by an old-time thug that has forgotten the sadness and remembered only the good times of strength and power at the top of the hill, urban beauty and friendship. ("Picture the scene, these fiends with fire/Ten dollar dreams, scheme, for a sack of that, believe that", "Be more precise when we do things/Cause life like shakin the dice, but I buck back twice") The chorus is a nostalgic catchy memory: "I'm strickly dressin dirty dirty/Gone represent it to the t-top/Born and bred up on the street top/Get to the money and the sweet spot/and forever hollerin/'Hootie Hoo!' when we see cops", with the last line shouted ("Hootie Hoo" warns others in an area that police officers have been sighted). The second verse is a slightly less romanticized version of thug memories. The beginning showcases OutKast's talent for subtle political content: "Cops and robbers niggaz be bound to get them dollars and cents/They get in a slump like baseball players/when they short on they rent" ("baseball" being a play on words, referring both to the sport and smoking crack cocaine), subtly equating corrupt law enforcement and criminals, each stealing to feed their habits. The verse ends with a major blow "But legislation got this new policy/Three strikes and you're ruined.. now where your crew at?" (this refers to the Three Strikes Policy) and is again, a subtle political jab at rehabilitation for drug offenders that disrupts the addicts' lives more than the addiction itself. The third verse, then, showcases the depths of thug life, but also the redemption. First, the singer, Cool Breeze, warns "And quit re'in-up and standin on this same old block/before our gangsta ass partna get both of us shot" as the old gang has fallen apart and can no longer hold. However, optimism holds out as he decides "I think when I finish sellin my last sack/I'ma take some of this money, go and give some back/Cause people won't forget about the time you gave, knowmsayin?/And start thinkin bout a path to pave" and the beat fades out to the song of a newborn baby crying, symbolizing the possible rebirth for ghetto communities.
"West Savannah" is an biographical song (originally left off of Southernplayalisticadillacmuzak) rapped by Big Boi, describing the singer's teenage mother and broken home, living with his grandmother. Soon, he begins using and selling drugs and food stamps, searching for a life in the ghettos. Like the previous song, "West Savannah's chorus is anthemic and nostalgic: "Now now now nine in my hand, ounce in my crotch/Diggin the scene with a gangsta slouch, mmmmhmmmm!/(like that now, like this, and it don't quit, and it don't stop)" The last verse then describes life as a southern thug: "niggaz in the South wear gold teeth and gold chains/Been doin it for years, so these niggaz ain't gone change" and defends the singer's lifestyle: "You might call us country, but we's only Southern/And I don't give a fuck, P-Funk spot to spark another". The song ends with a skit where two young men call a girl after teasing each other's "game"; they rudely come onto the girl, who threatens to cut them up.
"Da Art of Stroytellin' (Pt. 1)" is one of the most memorable songs, with a unique, thin and ominous beat and a vaguely menacing tone of voice. The first verse describes a mixed-up encounter where the singer finds his girlfriend at the mall. Jealous, he ends up with a different girl but is also in need of contacting a third girl, the mother of his child. The second verse describes a tragic young girl called "Sasha Thumper", a childhood friend of the singer. As youngsters, the pair played together all night: "/Three in the morning yawnin dancin under street lights/We chillin like a villain and a nigga feelin right/in the middle of the ghetto on the curb, but in spite/all of the bullshit we on our back starin at the stars above/(aww man) Talkin bout what we gonna be when we grow up/I said what you wanna be, she said, "Alive" (hmm)/It made me think for a minute, then looked in her eyes/I coulda died". After the singer grew up and became a rapper, he looked for her at his shoes, "hoping one day I would see her standing in the front row". Instead, she is "found in the back of a school/needle in her arm/baby two months due". The song ends with a skit, where a young girl is frightened of a thunderstorm and calmed by her grandmother, who tells her it is just "the Lord doing his work."
Like "Pt. 1", "Da Art of Storytellin' (Pt. 2)" is thin and tense, with a pronounced apocalyptic bent to the beats, tone and lyrics. The first verse describes the seeming beginning of Armageddon. As pollution and mankind's corruption take hold, "Look out the window golly the sky is electric blue/Mamma Earth is dyin and cryin because of you/Rainin cats and jackles all shackles disintegrate, to residue" and, still criticizing environmental destruction, "Rapin her heavenly body like a hoe, coochie so'/from niggaz constantly fuckin her never lovin her never showin/appreciation bustin nuts in her face when they done". The second verse criticizes those who ignore or downplay the imminent dangers, preferring short-term material gains to long-term spiritual ones. Consumerism and materialism are to blame for the mass apathy that allows world destruction to be possible, the song seems to explain: "The sky is fallin nobody ballin they done gave back they guns/for some tickets to the playoffs but the Hornets they won" seems to refer to those who sacrifice moral and ethical values, long-term defense against tyranny, for temporary gain of a midly-entertaining diversion, like a basketball game (see Charlottesville Hornets). Big Boi checks on his family to make certain they are safe, and then goes to the recording studio to lay down his final track as Armageddon approaches. Finally, the singer refers to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse with "Approachin the final exit/I'm thinkin I see four horsies but I don't though". Andre faintly says "Who says good folks ain't supposed to die?" and the song fades out to a deep, barrel-voiced chant of "Nothing's well/All's well".
"Mamacita" takes a somewhat different turn, focusing on romantic and sexual affairs. The chorus is a male and female verse exchanging pet names with alternating lust, love and hatred: "Mamacita! Pappadonna! Mamacita! Pappadonna!". The first verse, by female rapper Masada, is a strong woman extolling her own virtues and abilities to distinguish a good lover from a bad. She brags about her own ability to defend herself: "I'm from the Bricks we get kicks, offa loud gun shot licks/Fuck stones and sticks, loudmouths get nicks". The second verse is Andre criticizing women he views as being hypocrites: "Niggaz all dogs? If niggaz all dogs, then what you call broads?/Felines in heat, meowin for some yawn balls" and complaining about unreasonable critical women: "But she's back at you like a pit/mixed with a chihuahua how much meaner can you get?/Don't let her have her way with you she's gonna have a fit/You're the candy apple of her eye and bout to get bit". Though the end of this verse seems to advocate domestic violence, a close look at the lyrics, "grab her by her neck, throw her on the wall/Say, 'Bitch don't ever disrespect me never not at all'/These simple words can put a pause to half of the applause/Them black ball laws of balance at all cost" reveals the inherent negative judgement of spousal abuse. The third verse is overtly sexual, as the lovers now make passionate intercourse: "I got somebody's daughter in the Doctor headquarters, chillin/Prepare for this sex drillin, she said somethin in Spanish/Got me feelin' mannish", ending with a climactic couplet: "Never been a lame, horny, ever since I been a tiny/Fuckin with niggaz with ageless bodies/Talkin to me, while I squeeze it bare/Let me talk to you while I run my fingers through your hair".
Continuing with the sudden slow-down of the album with the previous track, "Spottieottiedopaliscious" is a jazzy and funky song, largely instrumental in the beginning. This song is unusual in that it uses live instrumentation, including drums, guitars and trumpet. With silky R&B vocals, this song is most reminiscent of early 1970s crooners like Marvin Gaye and Curtis Mayfield, with a powerful, triumphant trumpet break. The second and third verses are potent, witty spoken-word pieces. Some highlights of the psychedelic spoken poetry, a distinctive characteristic of OutKast:
- "I was so engulfed in the Old 'E'/I never made it to the door you speak of hard core" (Old 'E' refers to Olde English, a brand of very cheap malt liquor)
- "this fine bow-legged girl fine as all outdoors/lulls lukewarm lullabies in your left ear/competing with "Set it Off," in the right/But it all blends perfectly let the liquor tell it" (notice another OutKast characteristic: the alliteration of "lulls lukewarm lullabies")
- "eyes beaming like four karats apiece just blindin' a nigga/felt like I/chiefed a whole O of that Presidential/My heart was beating so damn fast/never knowing this moment would bring another/life into this world"
- "Can't gamble feeding baby on that dope money/might not always be sufficient but the/United Parcel Service & the people at the Post Office/didn't call you back because you had cloudy piss/So now you back in the trap just that, trapped/Go on and marinate on that for a minute"
"Y'All Scared" is about the inherently frightening dangers of changing one's set habits. The first verse focuses on a gangsta, trying to break away from the violence of his old life: "SouthWest GA warriors To come in packs, to feed, takin what we need/to succeed, you know what we gon' do, on this road/We gon' explode, now are you ready for this territory/Makin our life one big story to tell/Reality amongst the youth, long as, breath is in my body/I got proof, I'm not scared". The second verse is a outcast or drifter, having fallen from grace and in need of redemption: "went from clean to muddy/Polished to shine, the season to rhyme/Been down like brown, like dirt to the ground/Been lookin for love, now I bubble like suds/Others flew sky high, while others were duds/Live high up on the hills, to escape the floods". The third verse begins with an interesting device, "paragraph indent" is spoken in an onomotapoetic fashion, as though the singer is describing the actions of writing the words. This is followed by a denunciation of racial politics in America, criticizing the white mainstream for ignoring crack cocaine when it was only killing African-Americans, then panicking over the "crack epidemic" when white teens started using it. The fourth verse is a frightened rapper (Big Boi), unsure if he will be able to live up to the expectations caused by his last albums, mentioned by name as OutKast's previous two albums: Southernplayalisticadillacmuzak and ATLiens. The last verse is a again a condemnation of joyless, gangsta lives, with time spent imprisoned, in dire poverty and in fear of death.
"Nathaniel" is apparently a man rapping, a cappella, over a telephone while busy sounds of movement occur in the background. The lyrics indicate that he is either in prison or in the military, or perhaps a military prison. He is frustrated, not used to the conditions ("I'm used to smokin chronic movin pounds") and getting away from people who are not his caliber: "These niggaz called ballers sellin dimes and licks/I can't wait til the day they let me go/So I can eat some steak and shrimp/grab a mic, and bust a flow".
"Liberation" is perhaps the most beloved song on the album, among OutKast fans, both for the innovative music and groundbreaking lyrics. Divided into three parts, each drawn together by a piano-driven, haunting melody, the song is unusual (for most rappers, though less so for OutKast) for using live instruments instead of samples and synthesizers. The first section is song in an ominous yet harmonic fashion, describing, in three verses, a man, tired from age and depression and boredom, unable to gain the energy or courage to make the difficult choices he once took for granted. He feels himself sinking into middle-aged obscurity: "And I done took so much, not givin my glory/Now have a choice to be who you wants to be". Erykah's Badu's (note: she is married to Andre) verse, the fourth, and the second movement of the piece, begins after a climactic break to the repeated line: "Shake that load off." She sings in a silk, soulful voice, about a successful singer, dealing with the pressures of fame. Contrasted with the lack of success of the first section, the character described here seems to be a hero, but evidently, he does not enjoy his rich and famed life. In spite of his success, a "First class broad treat you like a nigga po/You wanna say "Wait!" but you're scared to ask/as your world starts spinning and it's moving fast". Unable to control his life, the subject of this verse apparently gives up, sinking into the same banal, everday and humdrum existence of the first verse. There is a more overt sense of condemnation in this verse, particularly in the last two lines: "You shake that load off and sing your song/Liberate the minds, then you go on home..", which seems to be implying that music can have a tremendous power on its audience, and musicians are capable of using that power to awaken the masses to the possibilities of life, or use it enforce the status quo. The subject of the verse chooses the latter. The third section is the most interesting. A spoken word poem with rhymes at a dizzying rate, this is perhaps the most memorable verse of the album. It seems to be about both the first two characters (who are, also, perhaps the same person), criticizing them ever more harshly with each line. Some memorable lines:
- "I must admit, they planted a lot of things/in the brains and the veins of my strain/Makes it hard to refrain, from the host of cocaine"
- "Makes it hard to maintain focus/They're from the glock rounds, and lockdowns, and berries/The seeds that sow, get devoured by the same locusts"
- "get beheaded when you falsely dreaded/Melanin silicon and collagen injected"
- "you lookin at the canvas of life/and not through the peephole of mortality/Single minded mentality/Gettin over on loopholes/Gettin paid two-fold on technicalities/Clickin your heels, scared to bust how you feel/Pack the steel/Pickin cotton from the killing fields with no toe"
- "your cowardly lies never defyin the jackals who babble/Runnin' with they pack, tail between your legs/Though the man on your head say the story/As you downplay your glory/Cacklin, helpin the shacklin of your brethern happen/Just by rappin'.../Libertad".
This song is truly one of the most well-respected songs on the album with most critics mentioning it by name. According to an Internet rumor, the early demos of this song were so intriguing that all of the guests on the album wanted to take part in it. Supposedly, Erykah Badu (Andre's wife) even asked to use it on her next album instead.
Beginning with a blistering guitar and a infectious, solid beat, "Chonkyfire" is an appropriate ending to the album. A funky rock and roll song with some psychedelic and macho lyrics, bragging about nonsense. Both lyrically and musically, this song shows clearly the influence of P Funk on the development of OutKast's sound: "Do you know what brings rats, mice, snakes up out of they hole/Chonkyfire, spliced with rock & roll/You are now entering the fifth dimension of ascension/Our only intention is to take you high, high".
- Precursors: Funkadelic - The Electric Spanking of War Babies, De La Soul - Three Feet High and Rising, Goodie Mob - Soul Food
- Followers: Q-Tip - Amplified, Bubba Sparxxx - Dark Days, Bright Nights, Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
Track listing
- Hold On, Be Strong
- Return of the "G" (Bengamin/Morodor/Organized Noize/Patton)
- First four verses: Andre
- Last two verses: Big Boi
- Rosa Parks (Benjamin/Patton)
- Verses: Big Boi
- Samples: Curtis Mayfield off Superfly
- Skew It on the Bar-B
- First Verse: Andre
- Second Verse: Raekwon
- Third Verse: Big Boi
- Aquemini (Benjamin/Patton)
- First/Third Verses: Big Boi
- Second/Fourth Verses: Andre
- Synthesizer (performed by OutKast/George Clinton)
- First Sung Verse: Andre Benjamin (main voice), George Clinton (background vocals)
- First Rapped Verse: Big Boi
- Second Sung Verse: George Clinton
- Second Rapped Verse: Andre
- Third Sung Verse: George Clinton
- Samples: "Rock Dirge" by Sly & the Family Stone
- Slump (Bell/Patton/Williams)
- First Verse: Backbone
- Second Verse: Big Boi
- Third Verse: Cool Breeze
- West Savannah (Organized Noize/Patton)
- Performed by: Big Boi
- Da Art of Storytellin' (Pt. 1) (Benjamin/Patton/Sheats)
- First Verse: Big Boi
- Second Verse: Andre
- Da Art of Storytellin' (Pt. 2) (Benjamin/Patton/Sheats)
- First Verse: Andre
- Second Verse: Big Boi
- Mamacita (Angelic Voices of Faith/Benjamin/Hogans/Organized Noize/Patton)
- First Verse: Masada
- Second Verse: Andre
- Third Verse: Witchdoctor
- Fourth Verse: Big Boi
- Spottieottiedopaliscious (Benjamin/Brown/Patton)
- First Verse: Pat Brown
- Second Verse: Andre
- Third Verse: Big Boi
- Y'all Scared (performed by OutKast/T-Mo/Big Gipp/Khujo)
- First Verse: T-Mo
- Second Verse: Gipp
- Third Verse: Andre
- Fourth Verse: Big Boi
- Fifth Verse: Khujo
- Nathaniel
- Liberation (performed by OutKast/Erykah Badu//Cee-Lo)
- First Verse: Andre
- Second Verse: Big Boi
- Third Verse: Cee-Lo
- Fourth Step: Erykah Badu
- Fifth Step: Big Rube
- Chonkyfire (Benjamin/Patton)
- Second Verse: Big Boi
Personnel
- Babyface - Executive Producer
- Charles Veal - Concert Master, Orchestral Arrangements
- George Clinton - Vocals (bckgr)
- John Frye - Engineer
- Brian Gardner - Mastering
- LaMarquis Mark Jefferson - Bass
- Debra Killings - Vocals (bckgr)
- Organized Noize - Programming, Producer, Executive Producer
- OutKast - Producer, Executive Producer
- Raekwon - Performer
- Claudine Pontier - Mixing Assistant
- Bernasky Wall - Engineer
- Darian Emory - Horn
- Jim Smith - Vocals (bckgr)
- Erykah Badu - Vocals
- C-Lo - Vocals
- Alberto Perez - Assistant Engineer
- Nigel Sawyer - Design Assistant, Assistant Art Director
- Kenneth Wright - Synthesizer
- Craig Love - Guitar
- Martin Terry - Guitar (Electric)
- D.L. Warfield - Art Direction, Design
- Josh Butler - Mixing
- Tomi Martin - Guitar
- Joi Gilliam - Vocals
- Rico Lumpkins - Assistant Engineer
- Skinny Miracles - Bass
- Whild Peach - Vocals
- Witchdoctor - Vocals
- Ralph Cacciurri - Assistant Engineer
- Ryan Williams - Engineer
- Mr. DJ - Scratching
- Jason Rome - Assistant Engineer
- Courtney Taylor - Coordination
- Omar Phillips - Percussion
- Ruben Bailey - Vocals
- Jamahr Williams - Vocals
- Khujo - Vocals, Performer
- Kenny Stallworth - Assistant Engineer
- South Central Chamber Orchestra - Strings, Woodwind
- Jason Stokes - Assistant Engineer
- Shawn Grove - Mixing Assistant
- Tom Smugala - Photography
- Victor Alexander - Drums
- Big Boi - Vocals
- Big Gipp - Performer
- Jean B. Smit - Engineer
- Katy Teasdale - Assistant Engineer
- Jermaine Smith - Vocals (bckgr)
- Mr. DJ Sheats - Arranger, Producer, Mixing
- Marvin "Chanz" Parkman - Synthesizer, Piano, Moog Bass
- Pat "Sleepy" Brown - Vocals (bckgr)