Georgia Tech Students Meet Big Boi from Outkast

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Georgia Tech Students Meet Big Boi from Outkast


The surprise visit came after a semester-long class about the music of OutKast




April 27, 2017
• Atlanta, GA








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Students from Dr. Joycelyn Wilson's class about Outkast and Trap Music meet with Big Boi (Antwan Patton) from Outkast to wrap up their semester of study.

It’s not your typical class on a campus known for engineers and scientists.

“The name of the course is Engaging the Lyrics of Outkast and Trap Music to Explore Politics of Social Justice,” explains Dr. Joycelyn Wilson. “We turn Outkast’s lyrics into a text and we use the narratives to have a larger conversation about social justice.”

Wilson studied the music and lyrics of Outkast as part of her dissertation.

“I felt like Outkast represents innovation,” she explains.

Originally, the students were not aware the class was about Outkast. It was just billed as a “race, science, and technology” course.

“When I found out it was about Outkast and social justice, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I have to take this class,’” says industrial engineering major Raianna Brown.

Wilson says she introduces students to the lyrics first, and then the class listens to the music.

“Often we’re attracted to the sound first. Then we analyze the words.”

While much of the focus was on Outkast, Wilson and her students reviewed songs across the hip-hop spectrum from Lauryn Hill to Lil Yacthy.

Through a course like this about music, students are introduced to urban issues and that begins a conversation.

“Having a course where you have discussions about social and political issues, it’s nice to have that change,” says mechanical engineering student Ahmed Aly.

To wrap up the course, Wilson arranged for Antwan Patton, better known as Big Boi from Outkast, to visit the class and take questions from the students.

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