#2000smusic — Public Fediverse posts on home.social

The Delete Bin @[email protected] · 2026-07-20 · 16:30 UTC

Outkast Play “Ms. Jackson”

Listen to this track by Dirty South progressive hip hop innovators Outkast. It’s “Ms. Jackson”, the second single from their landmark record Stankonia released in October of 2000. That record received rave critical reviews across the board. It also made an impact on the musical landscape as a whole from within hip hop as well as without. It certainly helped open up the possibilities for hip hop artists working in the south. By the turn of the century, the traditional east-west divide was no longer the only game in town. Outkast were on the vanguard of that movement.

“Ms. Jackson” received heavy radio play all over the world as a popular fixture on playlists alongside pop songs of all styles. Among other songs on the record, this hit tune is the product of a new creative approach between creative heads André 3000 and Big Boi. They pair acrobatic rapping, beats, and samples with varied instrumentation, a singable chorus, and more complex song structures. On the album as a whole, Outkast reference psychedelia, funk, and rock fused together with modern hip hop into something new. In doing so, they lean into classic styles of the past while also pushing the envelope into more experimental territory.

There’s even a heavy shot of the confessional singer-songwriter storytelling element in this song. “Ms. Jackson” offers clear narratives that outline characters and their motivations with a complex set of perspectives. To create that effect, André 3000 considered his own life experiences and worked alone with an acoustic guitar to work out his ideas at home. Big Boi worked primarily in their recently acquired Stankonia studio in Atlanta. In part because of that separation, this song and many of the other tracks on the album depart from the norm to what was happening in hip hop by the end of the Nineties and set a template for others in a new century.

“Ms. Jackson” tells a true story, or certainly a true set of sentiments between real people. From the mid-Nineties to the end of the decade, André 3000 was in a relationship with then up and coming R&B singer Erykah Badu who became the mother of their son. “Ms. Jackson” touches on that story, with the titular figure being Badu’s mother in André’s verses. The pleas for forgiveness in this tune are heartfelt on his part in the context of his break up with Badu. But this song is more nuanced than just being a straightforward confessional piece full of personal remorse, regret, and a trillion apologies. That is only one single perspective in a song that deals in wider themes beyond that one situation.

Outkast’s André 300 performing in October 2003. image: Tulane Public Relations

Big Boi’s contribution is not specifically directed at Badu or the real Ms. Jackson at all even if his recriminatory tone was purportedly not entirely welcome when Badu heard the song. His verses (one and three) centre around how ugly break ups can get from a more general perspective. To be fair, the shift in perspective between Big Boi’s verses and André’s wasn’t immediately obvious to many on first listen. Yet his verses paint a starkly realistic and painful picture of how break ups so often play out between two people and their respective familial camps. The children in the middle of that conflict are often reduced to points of leverage used by one party over another and vice versa.

André’s story is the more introspective picture of a relationship breakdown. But it’s no less illustrative of the costly toll it takes on everyone involved. In his verses, he ponders how easy it is to lose ground as perspectives shift from the puppy love of youth to the complexities of love in adulthood. He examines the responsibilities, obligations, and changing perspectives that go beyond idealized views of relationships and romantic feelings. Further to that, André’s narrator suggests how disconnection from a lover’s family when love breaks down can be just as significant a loss as the break up itself. Speaking directly to his lover’s mother speaks volumes on that front.

This exchange between the two perspectives between André 3000 and Big Boi on “Ms. Jackson” creates a compelling contrast. Even if they come at the subject of marital and familial breakdowns from entirely different angles, the common denominator running through the whole song is plain old agony. Break ups always hurt—some more than others, but always with a certain amount of misery on both sides as a given. When love, acceptance, and inclusion so easily turn to acrimony, rejection, and separation, how could it not? “Ms. Jackson” demonstrates how complex these states of affairs can be, infused with anger, grief, remorse, disconnection, and utter loneliness.

As a song on the radio, “Ms. Jackson” was evidence of a maturity spike across the pop music spectrum as a whole by 2000. Like the movement of a lot of rock music during the Nineties and into the new century when compared to the widespread casual misogyny of the 1980s, things had changed in hip hop, too. Blurry edges and emotional grey areas that were more true to life replaced the simplistic divide between men and women and who might be to blame for relationship breakdowns.

In this, “Ms. Jackson” was innovative as one of the most emotionally complex songs of the era in any genre. It approaches the very well-traveled pop music subject of break ups in a new way, with everyone in the narrative as flawed as each other instead of either party being a hero or a villain. It’s a human drama, with anger, hurt, and feelings of guilt still present. But along with that, so are the realities of claiming ownership of one’s mistakes, taking responsibility for caring for innocent parties, and paying proper respect to those one has hurt, even if one’s own heart is also broken.

Because this song is based on real events and involving real people, a question that arose at the time and soon after this song achieved popularity was simply this: what did the real Ms. Jackson think of this big hit song bearing her name? Well, she loved it. It even resulted in purchasing a personalized licence plate, the wording of which is pretty easy to guess.

Outkast put out two more albums after Stankonia before breaking up in 2007 and then only briefly reuniting in 2014. They were inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame in 2025, recognized today as the most successful hip hop duo of all time.

Big Boi is an active solo artist, record producer, and actor today. Catch up to his more recent movements at bigboi.com.

André 3000 took a long hiatus from his music career with some of that time spent pursuing an acting career. In 2023, he put out his solo record New Blue Sun, his first recording in 17 years. That album is not a hip hop record, but rather one that finds him exploring instrumental new age flute music. Learn about that release right here.

Enjoy!

#2000sMusic #hipHop #Outkast #songsAboutBreakingUp #songsAboutFamily

#2000smusic #hiphop #outkast #songsaboutbreakingup #songsaboutfamily