Born ‘Antwan Patton’ but his partners call him “Big Boi” aka “Daddy Fat Sacks,” and most famously known as one-half of the multi-platinum rap duo known as Outkast, Big Boi performed at the Madison Theater in Covington along with longtime Outkast collaborator, and fellow Atlantan, Killer Mike. Big Boi hails originally from West Savannah, Georgia but for all intents and purposes epitomizes the Atlanta rap scene; more specifically, the southwest Atlanta suburb of East Point. If you haven’t kept up with Big Boi post-Outkast, he has released 3 solo albums in 2010, 2012, and most recently BOOMIVERSE earlier this summer.
After opening with “Da Next Day” which also opens his album BOOMIVERSE, Big Boi wasted no time getting back to his roots by ripping off 3 Outkast classics back-to-back-to-back in “ATLiens” (my favorite Outkast song), “Skew It on the Bar-B,” and classic club anthem, “Rosa Parks.” After concluding “Rosa Parks,” Killer Mike joined Big Boi on stage wearing a red and black Cincinnati Reds hat. Based upon his Twitter account post (@KillerMike), Mike is a big Reds and Pete Rose fan. But I digress. Big Boi and Killer Mike performed the hit single “Kill Jill” and “Thom Pettie” off the 2012 album Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors. Big Boi then jumped right back to Outkast notables, “So Fresh, So Clean” and “Ms. Jackson.”
While Big Boi is an excellent rapper, and more than holds his own as a stand-alone act, for someone like me, the nostalgia of the Outkast songs made this show much more memorable. It seemed that Big Boi recognized the desire of the fans like myself, and explained that it is a difficult process to pick songs that everyone will like at his shows. With that, he announced that “The Whole World,” another Outkast song featuring Killer Mike, was for “everyone.” Later, Big Boi added “GhettoMusick,” “B.O.B.,” and “The Way You Move” to the long list of Outkast songs.
In addition to Outkast songs, Big Boi also played “Born to Shine,” which he did with electronic group Phantogram under the combined pseudonym Big Grams. Sidenote: Big Grams played the Bunbury Music Festival in 2016 for those of you who may have caught them live.
Despite covering his songs from other collections, Big Boi also sufficiently covered the majority of his material from BOOMIVERSE, including crowd favorites, “In the South” and “All Night,” along with a smattering of cuts from both Sir Lucious Left Foot (his aforementioned 2010 album) and Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors. And while the setlist was lengthy, Big Boi had no issue keeping the crowd energized and engaged throughout the show. It’s not often you can witness a true legend of the rap game in such an intimate venue, so for those who missed this opportunity, you may want to travel to Columbus or Louisville for shows on Thursday, September 21 and Saturday, September 23, respectively. It’ll be worth the trip.
