Mr. DJ Recalls OutKast Being Booed at the 1995 Source Awards
The producer reflects on the moment that changed how Southern hip-hop was seen, and exposed hip-hop’s regional divide.
Photo illustration by Kaushik Kalidindi for Okayplayer.
During the latest episode of The Almanac of Rap, producer Mr. DJ — known for working closely with OutKast, Rico Wade and The Dungeon Family — reflected on one of hip-hop’s most defining, and at the time, most uncomfortable, moments: OutKast being booed at the 1995 Source Awards.
At the time, OutKast took the stage to accept Best New Rap Group, which was presented to them by Salt-N-Pepa. However, they were met with a harsh reception from the New York-based crowd that hadn’t fully embraced Southern hip-hop.
For many, the moment has since become a turning point in the genre. But according to Mr. DJ, it didn’t feel that way at the time.
“I do remember the vibe,” he said. “But I don’t think when Dre [André 3000] said the South had something to say… I don’t know that he knew it was going to be taken the way that it was taken.”
Three Stacks’ now-famous line — “The South got something to say” — has since become a cultural marker. Even a mantra, if you will. But at that moment, over 30 years ago, it was something OutKast had been saying long before the awards.
“That was just conversation that we were casually having all the time,” Mr. DJ explained. “Like, we got a demo and don’t nobody want to hear it.”
What made that night different, though, was the reaction. One that clearly caught OutKast and those around them off guard.
When Salt-N-Pepa announced OutKast as the winners, Mr. DJ remembers something feeling off before the crowd even responded.
“She said ‘OutKast’… and it didn’t even feel right,” he recalled. “I was like, ‘Why she say it like that?’”
Then, the boos started.
“At that moment, I was like, ‘Oh… OK.’”
At the time, Southern hip-hop hadn’t been accepted as a major force in the culture… yet.
“We had not gotten that respect,” he said. “The East Coast had not accepted our coast as a place that represents hip-hop yet.”
For OutKast, the reception reflected a broader resistance from rappers outside of the South.
“We already talk funny, you know, in their eyes,” he added. “So there was no way they were allowing us to be a representative of hip-hop culture.”
While some tied the tension in the room to the East Coast-West Coast rivalry, the moment ultimately highlighted something deeper: the industry’s hesitation to recognize the South’s place in hip-hop.
In the years since, that moment — and Andre 3000’s words — have taken on a meaning that still shapes how Southern rap is seen today.
Throughout the conversation, Mr. DJ also touched on Future’s early beginnings in rap, The Dungeon Family tree and more.
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