Big Boi & Sleepy Brown Break Down Their Most Iconic Tracks

Yo what's up, this Big Boi AKA Daddy Fat Saxxx

on this side.

And this is Sleepy Brown, AKA The One.

And together we are The Big Sleep Over.

Yes sir.

And right now we're going to run through some

of our most iconic jams.

Some of our most iconic music.

Come on, man.

And take you on a journey with us, man.

Come on. Let's go. Let's ride out.

Ride out. Ride out.

[orchestral hip hop music]

♪ Outkast's 'Rosa Parks' ♪

When we started doing Aquemini,

we were at Doppler another studio.

And then just bringing in a plethora

of just musicians.

From percussionist to bass players

and guitar players and horn players.

And you know, you got songs like SpottieOttie.

Yeah.

And just really, it was a blank canvas

and you can just do whatever you want to do.

That's one thing, when you use live instruments,

you're not just locked into one groove.

♪ Many a day has passed ♪

♪ The night has gone by ♪

♪ But still I find the time to put that bump off in your eye ♪

[Interviewer] Was it true that you were sued

by the estate of Rosa parks for that song?

Yes, but what's crazy.

We were in her hometown or something,

and this was after she had passed

And some of her family members came up

to where we were at.

And they were like, you know, that's not our family.

That's the people that are behind it,

that are going after y'all.

We knew y'all didn't mean any harm behind the song.

The song was to enlighten and uplift.

You know, but shit...

[Sleepy Brown laughs]

Its always about that.

♪ It's beginnin' to look a lot like what ♪

♪ Follow my every step ♪

♪ Take note on how I crept ♪

♪ I's bout to go in depth ♪

[Sleepy Brown] The story behind Player's Ball

is basically L.A. came to us

and said yo we got a Christmas album

and we need one more record.

So can you get the boys to do one for us, Outkast?

And we were like huh?

Okay so when we went and told Big and Dre...

Rico told Big and Dre,

Yo, we gonna do this Christmas record.

They were already thinking,

oh, they try to destroy us.

They was already trying to fuck our career up

before we even get started man.

So the original title of the song was Socks and Drawers.

Cause that's all you got in the hood-

Wow. I forgot about that.

When you got a certain age...

When you started... like 11.

You start getting socks and drawers,

you not getting toys no more.

So that was the first-

The title of Player's Ball was Socks and Drawers.

Damn sho was. Yes.

The first title was Socks and Drawers.

What ended up happening was,

the beat that became Player's Ball.

Ray was actually doing it for Left Eye's group,

Jene sais quoi.

And Rico heard it and was like,

man, you God damn mind.

We're not giving that to them.

So me, Rico, and Ray are standing there,

and Rico just started saying,

man the scene was packed.

Because what we wanted to do was use the sample,

but we didn't use it because Laface wasn't playing that.

So basically Rico kind of just made up his own.

And which gave me the idea to do the hook.

♪ All the players came from far and wide ♪

♪ Wearing afros and braids ♪

♪ Kicking them gangsta rides ♪

[Big Boi] And actually we had

to pick between the two beats.

Cause it was TLC Sleigh Ride

and it was the Player's Ball beat.

That's right.

And we was like, we want that one.

That's right.

The gave us first dibs.

We want that one.

We picked the right beat. And here we are today.

Yes, sir.

♪ Ain't no chimneys in the ghetto ♪

♪ So I won't be hanging my socks on no chimney. ♪

♪ I'm full as a tick ♪

♪ Fix me a plate ♪

♪ I got the remedy ♪

We was like, man, we don't make no Christmas song, man.

Just talk about how we kick it on Christmas

at the dungeon man.

We do it the same day, every day.

Cause we was all grown already.

And it was like, okay, this is what we do on Christmas.

We go get us some drink.

You might get a plate.

And just talk about our experiences,

like it ain't no chimneys in the ghetto.

Right.

Won't be hanging no socks on no chimneys.

I got some chimneys now though.

[Laughter]

Its stockings everywhere boy.

The children got stockings upon stockings.

With all kinds of sugar plums and shit in it.

♪ My b- a choosy lover ♪

♪ Never f- without a rubber ♪

♪ Never in the sheets ♪

♪ Like it on top of the cover ♪

The other thing about that song

is a real true South anthem. Yeah.

You got the track produced by Three 6 Mafia.

Yes sir.

With Outkast and UGK on it,

you can't get no more Dirty South than that.

You can't get no more Dirty South.

Shout out to Pimp C man.

Yeah. Yeah.

RIP Pimp C.

♪ Ask Paul McCartney ♪

♪ The lawyers couldn't stop me ♪

♪ Slaughter of them pockets ♪

♪ Had to tie her to a rocket ♪

You know, just had the heavy weights go in the back,

and everybody was just knocking that shit over the fence.

Everybody would come out the back...

Pow it's gone.

Pow it's gone.

Pow it's gone,

Man I remember before Pimp passed,

he called me about that record.

He said, man, we gon win awards with this one Sleepy.

We gon win awards.

This is something that ain't never happened man.

You got triple 6, UGK, and Outkast?

No he say OutKs.

Yeah, OutKs.

He's like man come on.

And I knew by his excitement that it was going

to be a really big record.

♪ Ain't nobody dope as me ♪

♪ I'm just so fresh and clean ♪

♪ So fresh and so clean clean ♪

It was over at our studio,

Organized Noize over at the house.

Played on the keys at the studio.

[indistinct] for Ric.

The little melody

and then Ric basically came up with the words.

The next day I walked in Rico had the words.

And Rico told me like, when he got up that morning,

he was in the shower.

He just kinda started saying it,

Ain't nobody dope as me.

You know what I'm saying?

It came to him right then.

Which was cool, man.

It just came together like that, you know?

Then Big heard it.

Big got right on it.

He loved it.

♪ Teddy Pendegrass ♪

♪ Cooler than Freddie Jackson ♪

♪ Sippin a milkshake in a snowstorm ♪

♪ Let her throat warm ♪

♪ In the dorm room at the AU ♪

First I started with the long legal notepad,

the yellow one.

I need a super long one.

Cause sometimes I might scratch lines out or whatever.

I write on the spot.

I put a lot of thought into it.

Sometimes it might take a day.

Sometimes it might take months to do a verse.

You know what I'm saying?

It just depends on how I'm feeling.

A freestyle is just...

that's something that we do just for play play.

But you know, just gotta be potent.

When you sippin a milkshake in a snowstorm.

[laughter]

You got to really think about that for sho.

♪ Decatur ♪

♪ Well its the M I crooked letter ♪

♪ Ain't no one better ♪

♪ And when I'm on the microphone ♪

♪ You besta wear your sweater ♪

It was a reference to the Mississippi river.

You know what I'm saying?

Our flow. Yeah.

M I crooked letter, crooked letter,

I humped back, humped back I.

The Mississippi river,

I was flowing like the Mississippi.

You feel me?

A lot of shit go over people heads sometimes.

So it take time for you to kind of dial in.

But yeah, Fat Saxxx is a very complex character, man.

Yeah, it wasn't.

Yeah. That's what it was.

Yeah definitely.

Buying like MPC drum machines.

And SB 1200 drum machines.

Had little boss 808 machines and keyboards and whatnot.

And we just start tinkering around.

We both set up little home pre production studios.

And it just all came from being students

under Organized Noize.

Just kind of watching them.

And they...

I guess they trusted us in our production.

When we started making beats,

we'd come play it for them and they like,

oh man, that funky man.

You know what I'm saying?

And from there it just...

to the moon.

♪ Now throw your hands in the air ♪

♪ And wave them like you just don't care ♪

♪ And if you like fish and grits ♪

♪ And all the pimp shit ♪

♪ Everybody let me hear you say oh yeah ♪

[Big Boi] I remember like ATLiens, the actual title track.

But before we put the baseline on there,

we had a mother fucker in there playing the tuba.

Got that boom, boom, boom,

boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

But it was just moving too slow.

So then we had to go back and put the bass on there,

but it just was trying different things.

Like you said to layer it.

And so you can really, really, really,

really put the groove right in they face.

Alien identity came from just being an outsider,

being an outcast.

You know what I'm saying?

Whether you're extraterrestrial or illegal alien,

you know what I'm saying?

You just ain't accepted.

So you know, it's other worldly.

You think in another dimension and outside the box,

you just don't conform to what's going on

in this particular space and time.

♪ I'm sorry Ms. Jackson ♪

♪ Oooo ♪

♪ I am for real ♪

♪ Never meant to make your daughter cry ♪

♪ I apologize a trillion times ♪

It's the place where all the funky things come from.

The alternate bizarro universe.

Dre just kept saying,

I stank I can. I stank I can.

And we just come up with these words, man.

And Dre came up with like Stankonia.

That's like, boom.

Yeah.

That's where we from.

We gon be the ATLiens, we from Stankonia.

Believe it.

♪ I love your mom and everything ♪

♪ But see I ain't the only one that laid down ♪

♪ She want to rib you up to start a custody war ♪

♪ My lawyers stay down. ♪

We just feed off each other, like off each other's energy.

Like it's whoever catch the vibe first.

And then from there,

its all about the individual perspective after that.

So we just kind of bounce off each other.

And it works beautifully.

I mean, it's just how you build.

♪ What you really know about the Dirty South ♪

♪ What you really know about the Dirty South ♪

It was right after we put out Southernplayalistic.

Goodie mob was working on Soul Food.

So we was all doing promo runs and things like that.

And we'd come back to the Dudgeon

and hear Goodie Mob doing Cell Therapy.

And them just carving their own path.

And they was like,

Hey, we got this record for you to get on man.

I was like word.

And it was Big Gipp that asked me to be on the record.

And it was jamming.

It's definitely the anthem out the camp.

Like I said gave...

It made the South dirty.

It made the Dirty South,

this red clay known across the world.

Absolutely. From there it was just...

Sky's the limit.

♪ Well if pimpin be a sport ♪

♪ See I be being the wide receiver ♪

♪ The playa the B I G ♪

♪ Will make the people believers ♪

Dirty south was basically artist Cool Breeze.

Was his idea to come up with that name.

Dirty south is really yes.

That definitely represents Atlanta.

That name gave...

The South identity. Yes.

It gave us identity. Absolutely.

So shout out to Cool Breeze for that man.

[indistinct]

The coolest cutter at camp.

Yes, sir.

♪ I like the way you move ♪

♪ I like the way you move ♪

♪ Whoo ooo ooo ♪

I had the beat for years and I had a cookout at my house.

Yep.

And we were in a boom boom room and I played it.

And then Brown was like, wait a minute.

And then he started like humming.

I'm like, okay, cool.

It was like, well, we gonna work on this man next.

And we brought it in the studio man.

And I promise you, this man got in there

and just went crazy.

And I was like, wow, that's like this gon be one

of them ones.

I had to be real meticulous with my pan after that,

because I knew it was the jam jam.

♪ You so fine ♪

♪ You so fine ♪

♪ You so fine ♪

♪ You drivin me outta my mind ♪

♪ Outta my mind ♪

♪ Ooo baby ♪

I've always been kind of known as like the silent member.

Or the third member of Outkast.

Which has always been a blessing.

And it started with So Fresh So Clean.

So by the time we got to The Way You Move,

that was the record that really put me out, you know.

As far as Big letting everybody see who I was

and doing verses and all that stuff.

Because, you know, I remember when...

Really L.A. wanted Usher to do it.

You know what I'm saying?

But Big, little bro stuck up for me.

Was like, no, we're going to keep Sleepy on it.

Which I really appreciate him for doing it.

Cause it really took...

It took me to another level as far as finally wanting

to be known as an artist.

I knew it was a great record.

When I first heard the hook,

I knew it was going to be a great record.

I didn't know how big it was going to be though.

I didn't know that when it came out on the charts,

it'd be like, Hey Ya one week at number one,

The Way You Move at number two.

Then the next day it would be The Way You Move

at number one, and Hey Ya at number two.

It was battling with each other,

which was really incredible.

And I just, you know, man,

it was such a blessing to have a record like that, man.

Such a blessing.

[upbeat marching band music]

I remember Dre calling me

and he wanted me to come to Boss Town at the time.

Which was here, Stankonia.

The band that he was using was a band

that I was using called Sleepy's Theme.

I had done an album called Sleepy's Theme.

And it was kind of like most of the same players.

And when I came to the studio and I heard that groove,

I was like, wow, this is different and crazy.

So I'm like, what you want me to do on it?

He was like, man, just kind of sing about, you know,

what's going on in your day, that day?

Like what Sleepy do when he waking up.

And what's going.

It just became a vibe, man.

It just...

SpottieO just became one of those records that...

I don't know bro.

It's just organic man.

Yeah. So organic.

That's what it is.

♪ When I first met my SpottieOttieDopaliscious angel ♪

♪ I can remember that damn thing like yesterday ♪

When its free flowing and you have freedom in the groove,

you can do whatever you want to do.

And we would like to call our performances

on that record was called not spoken word, but smoking word.

Nice.

Yeah.

♪ Now party people in the club its time to cut a rug ♪

♪ And throw the Goose up in the sky just for the shutterbug ♪

I was over there at Jive.

And they was shucking and jiving.

And I called L.A.,

and L.A. was like, come on, come on home.

I had For Your Sorrows.

And then I had Shutterbug that was produced by Scott Storch.

And when I let L.A. hear Shutterbug he was like,

holy shit.

He flew me to New York.

We had a listening party and then it was boom.

We was back on again.

♪ I keep it playa ♪

♪ While some choose to play it safe ♪

♪ Boy check the resume its risky business in the A ♪

♪ And I've been witness to this history ♪

♪ Ever since the 10th grade ♪

♪ We went from rocking braids to temp fades ♪

I went to Miami to Scott Storch house.

He had some of the loudest speakers I've ever heard.

I think that's the loudest I ever heard music played

in my life. He almost blew my eardrums.

Like went down there and was just checking out some beats.

And then we went in his little studio

and man, he turned his song up so loud, man.

I was like damn, that's it.

And we stood outside by the boat.

He had the boat outside.

And was like, Hey man, we need to work on it.

So I brought it back to Atlanta and begin writing to it.

And then send it back and forth to him.

He was like, holy shit. We did it.

[computerized funk music]

Definitely, that was for my uncle.

He was just like, your pimp title.

Your sir.

Your Knight in rhyming armor.

Left foot.

You know what I'm saying?

So he just took the sword

and put it over my shoulder like this.

I got down on one knee and then he...

My coronation was in Savannah Georgia,

right by the alligator pit in the barbecue joint.

And Sir Lucious Left Foot was born on a stormy summer night.

Yeah, straight pimping, man.

♪ I'm on my grind shawty ♪

♪ Don't block my shine shawty ♪

Man. He cool as hell, man.

Like we recorded right here in this studio again.

Stankonia the place where all funky things come from.

I just called him. I was like, man, I got this song.

I want you to get on with me.

So he pulled up like a couple of hours later

in a yellow Lamborghini.

He kept calling me Big dog, Big dog.

Big dog what you want me to do Big dog?

And it might've took him like 10 or 15 minutes man.

And he killed it. We knew it was the jam.

Cut Master Swift produced it.

And then maybe two or three weeks later went to jail.

I'm like, God damn.

So I had to shoot a video for it.

Cause I believed in the record

and I just was showing like pictures and footage of him.

It looked like a memorial video almost.

You know what I mean?

♪ Then Madea went to jail ♪

♪ I make music ♪

♪ I make movies ♪

♪ I need Tyler Perry sales ♪

♪ Loud smell coming out the Lamb ♪

♪ What the hell ♪

♪ Gucci Mane so I'm Gucci'd down ♪

♪ She got on Chanel ♪

Still do it,

in the show to this day live and shit.

And then we actually performed at the [indistinct] bike show

And rocked the shit out that shit.

♪ If it all right ♪

♪ I wanna kick it with you all night ♪

♪ All night ♪

I'ma tell you where it came from.

It came from L.A. Reed.

I was here and I was working.

And he was like, Hey, I got this song,

I know you'll just do something else with it.

And he sent it to me and I was like, okay.

That's dope.

So it was Lunch Money Lewis wrote the hook.

And Dr. Luke produced it.

And I just wrote all the rhymes and the bridge

and put the flavor on there.

And it turned out to be a smizzash man.

Another gold,

if not platinum plaque.

90s, 2000s, 2010s.

I got plaques in three different decades.

Yup.

Crazy.

♪ Ric Flair, Ric Flair flashy ♪

♪ Bitch don't I look dashin ♪

♪ Bitch don't I look classy ♪

♪ Bitch don't act so sassy ♪

Killer Mike brought me that record.

He was like, bro, I got something special for you.

And he was like, we got to do it together.

He said its got to be me.

Gave me the record I was like, this shit hard as shit, man.

So right in this room right here,

we went in there and we just started writing.

♪ Daddy Fat Saxxx with three Xs ♪

♪ Fuck niggas hit the exit ♪

♪ No S is on my chest ♪

♪ But all these diamonds got me blessed ♪

There's another whole version of that song

with different verses on it.

Cause we did some verses then we were like...

Let's do it another kind of way.

So I got the demo version on my phone.

I was like, wow, that was dope as hell too.

So just the chemistry of just, you know, Jedi rap shit.

Trading bars with Killer Mike.

I mean keeping each other sharp.

♪ Last night ♪

♪ Can't sleep ♪

♪ Girls keep calling me ♪

♪ This girl keep calling me ♪

♪ She keep on parytin ♪

Well, we were done before any pandemic happened.

The album was done.

In the can done.

And we were just about to drop it.

And then, they dropped that God damn COVID on us.

So he was like, hold on until we able to get out

and shake hands and kiss babies and really perform it.

We didn't want to just put the album out

and let it just sit without people seeing us.

So what we did in the meantime was just kind of trickle out,

certain jams to kind of just get them ready for it.

And now they ready.

Yeah.

The album is...

You know, we got Killer.

We got Scotty ATL.

We got KI Ceelo.

We got Ceelo on it.

Yeah. We got Ceelo on it.

And you know, it's really special to us man.

It's it's both of our vibes bro.

14 tracks.

No two songs sound alike.

It's a hell of a ride.

I mean, from top to bottom.

It's something on there for everybody.

Like every song is for everybody,

but it's some on that for everybody.

Right.

Even for people that ain't been born yet.

Its something on there for they ass too.

For they ass too.

You know what I'm talking about.

Really though.