Big Boi
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Big Boi (born Antwan André Patton on February 1, 1975 in Savannah, Georgia) is an African American hip hop artist and producer; one half of the successful and avant-garde hip-hop duo OutKast. He also goes by the aliases "Daddy Fat Sacks", "Lucious Left Foot", "Billy Ocean", and "Francis the Savannah Chitlin' Pimp".
Big Boi was born and spent the first half of his childhood in Savannah before moving to Georgia's capital of Atlanta. He had a strong interest in hip hop music, and met André "André 3000" Benjamin while attending Tri Cities High School in the late-1980s. the two eventually joined forces as OutKast and signed with LaFace Records.
In contrast to his more sedated partner, Big Boi's on-record persona enjoys partying and employs a more pimp-like mentality. Big Boi is also the more direct member of the team, and has often used his lyrics to criticize the problems that plague both the African American community and the world.
In addition to his work on many OutKast and Dungeon Family-related material, Big Boi has also been featured on other artists' tracks without André 3000. His most notable guest appearances were on the 1999 Missy Elliott hit, "All N My Grill", the Youngbloodz' "85 South", and Trick Daddy's 2001 single "In Da Wind".
After four increasingly successful albums as a duo, André decide to make a solo album as a side project. Big Boi also produced a solo effort, and the two albums were packaged together as Speakerboxxx/The Love Below in 2003. Big Boi's Speakerboxxx anchored the release with the original OutKast style, and was the half to receive the most recognition from the hip hop audience. One song from each CD was released in September 2003 as a single. Big Boi's choice was the smooth urban single "The Way You Move", featuring Sleepy Brown. It was originally supported by urban radio, but then crossed over to pop charts and became almost as big a pop hit as André "Hey Ya". "The Way you Move" supplanted "Hey Ya!" as the #1 song on the US pop charts, one of the few times in music history a group has replaced itself at the top of the charts. The second single from Big Boi's side of the album was "Ghetto Musick", which featured both members of OutKast and a sample from a Patti LaBelle song.
Currently, he and André are shooting a film for HBO that is to be loosly based on their lives. It will premiere in 2005.