He’s raged against the machine; now he’s finally getting his freedom. On the phone Thursday night from a recording studio in Atlanta, Big Boi of Southern hip-hop legends OutKast confirmed that he will be leaving Jive and signing to Def Jam, who will be releasing his long-delayed solo album, Sir Luscious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty. “The lawyers just have to finish their lawyering,” Big explained, and added that he was happy to be working with LaFace co-founder and current Island Def Jam Chairman and CEO LA Reid again, since “he’s been with us since the beginning.”
As Big put it, “I just gave you the scoop of the century, man.” (Not to pat ourselves on the back or anything, but we seem to have a knack for breaking stories about hip-hop artists leaving Jive.)For more on Big Boi’s label switch, as well as his appearance at Sound Academy on August 1 for Lil X’s annual Caribana party, check out EYE WEEKLY’s Caribana issue around the GTA and on EYEWEEKLY.COM on July 30.