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Rap group OutKast perform at the 44th Annual Gramm

Source: HECTOR MATA / Getty

On this very day in the year 2000, Outkast‘s fourth studio album Stankonia was released. The album was certified gold by the RIAA within a week of it’s release and with huge singles like, “Ms. Jackson” and “So Fresh, So Clean,” the project was both critically acclaimed and well-received by consumers.

Andre 3000 and Big Boi have mastered dominating hip-hop conversations, even without having released a joint project in over a decade. It’s not easy to have an album with such ground-breaking bars and oddball production still resonate nearly 20 years later, but the ATLiens have proven with pretty much every album they made that their creations transcend time.

On this 17 year anniversary of the release of Stankonia, let’s look back on some of the bars that sound like they could have been written yesterday.

“Snappin’ and Trappin’”

“N***a you stuck like a truck in red dirt, you’s in church

And I’m the deacon speakin’ while ya tweakin’

The preacher preachin’, reachin’, teachin’

Speakin’, being, breathin’

You’re not, your clock stop, and now you’re laying in a pretty box

And now pastor is only talking ’bout the pretty parts of your life

Your brother f***in’ your damn wife

You look for the pearly white gates, but you realize your fate

It’s too late, cause you hate, you hate”

“So Fresh, So Clean”

“Those huge baby eyes, get to runnin’ off at they mouth

And tellin’ me everything that’s on your nasty mind

They say you’re malnutritioned, in need of vitamin D

And invitin’ me to that tingle in your spine”

“Spaghetti Junction”

“Black man, white man, Jew man, ain’t no joke

Remember me and my cousin used to sit up on the porch

And talk about when we get older; now we up against the ropes

Yeah, they kickin’ n****s door down, ’cause it ain’t no dope on the streets

And a quarter pound of feet weed, that’s all a n***a like me need

“I’ll Call Before I Come”

“It’s like a brand new pair of Reeboks or a junkie freshly detoxed

You feel the tingling all over like convulsions or the rooster pox

I used to not give a damn

But now I make it a point just to please you

So you can go back and tell all your buddies, I Pretty D’d you”

“Red Velvet”

“How can you measure a n***a by multiple figures he may got, got, got

Had he not purchased the newest Mercedes

That lose it’s value soon as you drive that b***h off the lot, lot, lot

Would he still be the latest, most wanted, doggonit you want it

He got it-type n***a ’round the town, town, town

Had he not played it so flashy

Ashy when half of these n****s hurtin and workin

Would be he be found, found, found”

“Humble Mumble”

“I met a critic, I made her s**t her draws

She said she thought Hip Hop was only guns and alcohol

I said “Oh hell naw!”, but yet it’s that too

You can’t discrima-hate cause you done read a book or two”

“B.O.B”

“Should have hit it, quit it, rag top

Before you re-up, get a laptop

Make a business for yourself, boy, set some goals

Make a fat diamond out of dusty coals

Record number four, but we on a roll

Hold up, slow up, stop, “Control”

Like Janet, plan it, Stankonia’s on ya”

“Gangsta S**t”

“If it’s for the wealth I’ll stop well put I like this

It’s like me selling some dope because my girlfriend wants to shop

Wrong reason, whatever the season, hey winter, spring, summer or fall”

“We Luv Deez Hoez”

“From the weave to the fake eyes

To the fake nails down to the toes

Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha, we love these hoes

Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha, we love these hoes”

“Ms. Jackson”

“King meets queen, then the puppy love thing

Together dream ’bout that crib with the Goodyear swing

On the oak tree, I hope we feel like this forever

Forever, forever ever, forever ever?

Forever never seems that long until you’re grown

And notice that the day-by-day ruler can’t be too wrong”

10 Lyrics From ‘Stankonia’ That Still Resonate 17 Years Later  was originally published on globalgrind.com