THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

351-OutKast-Ms. Jackson.

2000-Number 2 single.

Best Bit-At 3.55. It’s the best song in the world ever about groveling to ‘The Mother-In-Law.’

OutKast were formed in 1992, in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, by Andre ‘3000’ Benjamin, and Antwan ‘Big Boi’ Patton, they remained active as a duo until 2007, and collaborated again to tour for over 40 musical festivals in 2014. The duo chose their name based on finding ‘outcast’ as a synonym for ‘misfit’ in a dictionary, since 2007 they have both pursued solo careers.

OutKast are one of Hip-Hop’s’ most critically acclaimed acts, having been praised for their experimentation with diverse genres including Funk, Psychedelia, Jazz, and Techno, as well as their lyrical content. As OutKast they released six studio Albums between 1994-2006, and 32 singles, of which 10 reached the Billboard top 40, with three making the Number 1 spot. In the UK six of their songs have made the top 40, with this track being the highest charting, when peaking at Number 2.Andre ‘3000’ was born on May 27th, 1975, in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, and Antwan ‘Big Boi’ Patton was born on February 1st, 1975, in Savannah, Georgia, United States. The pair first met in 1992 when they were both 16 years old, where they attended the Tri-Cities High School, they initially both participated in ‘Rap Battles,’ that would take place in the school cafeteria. They were soon signed to the label that would later become ‘LaFace Records,’ becoming the labels first Hip-Hop act, OutKast have gone on to sell in excess of 25 million records worldwide.

‘Ms. Jackson’ was the second single released from OutKast’s fourth studio Album ‘Stankonia’ from 2000, the Album was far more experimental than previous releases, as they added Techno, and Psychedelic Funk to their sound. ‘Ms. Jackson’s’ lyrics are a message from Andre 3000 to the mother of the singer Eryka Badu (see also best songs 408) with whom he had a child with, Andre and Badu had been in a relationship from 1996-1999, but had since split. He wanted Badu’s mother to hear his side of the story, as he felt he was being portrayed as a bad father. Ms. Jackson is a name OutKast made up, Badu’s mother is really named Kolleen Wright. It was reported that Kolleen Wright really liked the song being written about her and said,’Where’s my publishing cheque.’

‘Ms. Jackson has six writers credited, along with Benjamin, and Patton of OutKast, also credited is their long term collaborator David Sheats, and also Stan Watts. Due to the songs sampling the German composer Richard Wagner’s (1813-1883) name is added, along with Shuggie Otis who wrote ‘Strawberry Letter 23’ (see also best songs 1022.) ‘Ms. Jackson samples The Brothers Johnson’s version of ‘Strawberry Letter 23’ by adding various audio effects, prominently reversed.

‘Me and yo’ daughter got’s this thing going on. You say it’s puppy love, we say it’s full grown.Hope that we feel this, feel this way forever, you can plan a pretty picnic, but you can’t predict the weather.’