Outkast's Antwan "Big Boi" Patton recently received a Fine Arts Award from Savannah, Georgia's King-Tisdell Cottage Foundation for his accomplishments in the arts.
The foundation's aim is to research and preserve black history and culture in Savannah. Big Boi received the award in a ceremony this past Saturday.
"It feels great," he told The Associated Press. "It's been a long time coming. After 13 years, I appreciate it."
With their upcoming musical feature film on its way, rap duo OutKast are set to release the film's soundtrack, Idlewild, on December 6th.
"It's like an OutKast record on film," Big Boi says of the movie, with the same tentative title. Set in the Depression-era South, the film, which will be released in theaters on January 6th, follows the story of a struggling musician (played by Andre 3000) and a lovable Lothario (Big Boi).
"Since it's in the Thirties, we didn't want to use too many synthesizers and keys," says Big, who adds that the duo mined its vault of unreleased and unfinished tracks for the album.
The first single, "Idlewild Blues," is a jazzy romp loaded with drum stomps, muffled trumpets and piano; Dre gives his best Cab Calloway impersonation, and Big flips his hallmark spitfire rhymes. "It's a juke-joint jam," says Big. "I don't know if you can categorize it as a rap song."
At tonight's Los Angeles premiere of Ira Sachs' Sundance Award-winning film "Forty Shades of Blue," I had the chance to speak with André Benjamin, half of the talented OutKast, who was kind enough to answer a few quick questions about the upcoming OutKast movie.
Written and directed by Bryan Barber, who worked with André and Antwan "Big Boi" Patton on their videos "The Whole World", "Hey Ya!" and "The Way You Move," the new film is a musical set in the Prohibition-era American South, where Rooster (Patton), a speakeasy performer and Percival (Benjamin), the club's piano player, contend with gangsters who have their eyes on the club.
Outkast is also producing the soundtrack, which Patton has stated is a true OutKast album instead of a basic soundtrack loaded with guest appearances.