Outkast are marking 30 years of ATLiens by putting money into East Point, the Atlanta neighbourhood the duo came out of. Andre 3000 and Big Boi have partnered with the football brand MUNDIAL and the nonprofit Soccer in the Streets to produce official ATLiens jerseys for youth teams there.
Big Boi delivered the gear himself, turning up at an East Point scrimmage to hand it over and talk to the young players. The limited-edition Outkast x MUNDIAL ATLiens jersey is being released worldwide, with a portion of proceeds going to Soccer in the Streets, which runs free programmes for underserved young people across metro Atlanta.
The shirt design pulls from the album's visual world and includes glow-in-the-dark elements, which is a fairly direct translation of the record's otherworldly presentation into kit. Kaseem Ladipo, the nonprofit's executive director, told WSB-TV the partnership reflects how strong community support in Atlanta has become.
ATLiens came out on Aug. 27, 1996. It debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, sold close to 350,000 copies in its first two weeks and was eventually certified double platinum, which was a substantial commercial result for a Southern rap record at that moment.
The larger effect was on how the industry saw the region. Before ATLiens, the South was still treated as peripheral in hip-hop, and the album made the case that Atlanta had its own sound and its own direction rather than a version of anyone else's. Its blend of afrofuturist production and Southern roots is the template a great deal of what followed was built on.
Thirty years on, the duo's anniversaries keep prompting reassessment rather than reunion tours. Idlewild turned 20 to a warmer critical reception than it originally got, and the ATLiens anniversary is being spent on a soccer pitch instead of a stage.
The facts
- ATLiens was released on Aug. 27, 1996 and debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200.
- It sold nearly 350,000 copies in its first two weeks and went double platinum.
- Outkast partnered with MUNDIAL and Soccer in the Streets for the anniversary.
- Big Boi delivered ATLiens jerseys in person at an East Point youth scrimmage.
- A portion of jersey proceeds goes to Soccer in the Streets, an Atlanta nonprofit.
- The jersey design carries glow-in-the-dark elements from the album's artwork.
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