During an interview with the Rory & Mal Podcast, DJ Drama discussed the Outkast Gangsta Grillz project that almost came to be.
Drama’s mixtape catalog is one of the best of all time. He’s done classic projects with 2 Chainz, Young Jeezy, Lil Wayne, Nipsey Hussle, Pharell, T.I., Childish Gambino, Meek Mill, Gucci Mane and even Tyler, the Creator.
What would’ve made his catalog perfect is if he did a mixtape with arguably the best rap group of all time, Outkast.
On the podcast, Drama said, “Outkast was supposed to do a Gangsta Grillz. Me, their manager at the time, Blue Williams, Dre and Big Boi all got on the phone, we were gonna do a Gangsta Grillz … It was supposed to come out before [Outkast’s last album] Idlewild.”
He continued, “They said, ‘Listen Dram, honestly as much as we wanna do it we don’t have the time, we’re working on the soundtrack and we’re working on the movie. But we wanna offer you a record for your album, like an Outkast record.’ And I was like, ‘What? Hell yeah! Okay.’”
That record turned out to be “The Art of Storytelling, Pt.4” which appeared on Gangsta Grillz: The Album, Drama’s debut studio album.
But still, that doesn’t make up for the fact that instead of getting an Outkast Gangsta Grillz project we got Idlewild, the group’s last and by far worst album.
Not only would a Gangsta Grillz project probably be better than what fans got from Idlewild, but it would send off Outkast in a better way and bring together two of the most important entities in the history of Atlanta rap.
Outkast is by far the best group to come out of Atlanta and Big Boi and Andre 3000 are two of the best rappers from the city. DJ Drama gained recognition DJing for T.I. and creating Gangsta Grillz mixtapes with a plethora of Atlanta rappers such as Ludacris, B.o.B., Soulja Boy, Gucci Mane, Young Jeezy, K Camp and Richie Homie Quan.
Put the two together, and you make Atlanta history. But unfortunately, it never came to be.