Since 1994, OutKast has exposed listeners to community, politics and culture associated with Atlanta and the South through their lyrics.

Their influence would go beyond rap to inspire journalists, music executives, cultural critics and scholars, and examine broader themes like gentrification, music business, geography, family, race and sex.

They created a literary canon of popular and academic books that further cement the group’s status as a groundbreaking, influential act before their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this month.

Here are seven November book recommendations related to OutKast.

“Hey Ya!: The Unauthorized Biography of OutKast” by Chris Nickson

"Hey Ya!: The Unauthorized Biography of OutKast" was written by British journalist Chris Nickson. (Courtesy of St. Martin's Press)

“Hey Ya!: The Unauthorized Biography of Outkast” traces the duo’s journey from Atlanta teenagers who met at Tri-Cities High School in East Point to million-selling, Grammy-winning superstars.

Written by British journalist Chris Nickson and published in September 2004, the book is comprehensive and reads like an extended feature story. It includes quotes from past interviews, chapters named after album titles and brief historical context about Atlanta and (Black) Southern music, as well as insights into the group’s creative process and stories behind some of their biggest hits.

“Hey Ya!” ends right before Andre 3000 and Big Boi released their 2006 musical film “Idlewild,” but it’s a book that old and newfound fans can enjoy.

“Sing to Me: My Story of Making Music, Finding Magic and Searching for Who’s Next” by Antonio “L.A.” Reid and Joel Selvin

"Sing to Me" is a memoir by LaFace Records cofounder Antonio 'L.A.' Reid. Reid was an early champion of OutKast. (Courtesy of HarperCollins)

After LaFace Records was formed in Atlanta in 1989, OutKast became the record label’s first and most successful hip-hop act, signed in 1993.

“Sing to Me: My Story of Making Music, Finding Magic and Searching for Who’s Next” is a memoir written by LaFace Records cofounder Antonio “L.A.” Reid. The book, published in 2016, tells the full story of how Reid went from being part of funk and R&B group The Deele to building the hit factory with artists like TLC, Toni Braxton, Usher and OutKast. It describes vividly how OutKast went from being nervous kids in their audition to one of his career highlights as a record executive.

“Sing to Me” offers the good, bad and ugly when it comes to one of the most revered music executives regardless of the genre.

“Chronicling Stankonia: The Rise of the Hip-Hop South” by Regina Bradley

Kennesaw State University professor Regina Bradley pulled from works by popular writers, academics and her own coming-of-age experiences to write "Chronicling Stankonia: The Rise of the Hip-Hop South." (Courtesy of the University of North Carolina Press)

Kennesaw State University professor Regina Bradley turned the group’s lyricism, production and subject matter into critical questions about herself and the contemporary American South.

In her February 2021 book “Chronicling Stankonia: The Rise of the Hip-Hop South,” Bradley pulls from works by popular writers, academics and her own coming-of-age experiences in Albany, Georgia, to show how OutKast’s catalog helped redefine the cultural and intellectual possibilities for Black Southerners growing up in the 1980s and ‘90s. Bradley, a Nasir Jones Hiphop Harvard Fellow, also considers OutKast pioneers for reimagining the South’s role in expanding hip-hop culture, popular music and Black creativity.

“Chronicling Stankonia” is an immersive read that turns beats, personal narratives and thought-provoking literature into conversations around modern Black identities.

“An OutKast Reader: Essays on Race, Gender and the Postmodern South” edited by Regina Bradley

"An OutKast Reader: Essays on Race, Gender and the Postmodern South," also edited by Bradley, includes essays about the group's influence on fashion, spirituality, regionalism and gender. (Courtesy of the University of Georgia Press)

Just a few months after publishing “Chronicling Stankonia,” Regina Bradley went back into the lab to further dissect OutKast with additional Black minds and voices.

“An OutKast Reader: Essays on Race, Gender and the Postmodern South” (published in October 2021) is an anthology that examines Andre 3000 and Big Boi’s music in terms of fashion, spirituality, regionalism and gender. Bradley called on Black scholars and cultural authorities Charlie Braxton, Joycelyn Wilson, Susana M. Morris and Clint Fluker among others to explain how the duo’s music, pride, fearlessness and visibility disrupt the status quo for Blackness to present new images and narratives around Southern Culture.

“An OutKast Reader” indicates a new canon of writers and thought leaders who use OutKast as a guide to explore possibilities for scholarship.

“The Legend of the Black Mecca: Politics and Class in the Making of Modern Atlanta” by Maurice J. Hobson

"The Legend of the Black Mecca: Politics and Class in the Making of Modern Atlanta" gives the backstory to the Atlanta OutKast members grew up in. (Courtesy of the University of North Carolina Press)

“The Legend of the Black Mecca: Politics and Class in the Making of Modern Atlanta” explores some of the roots and themes associated with OutKast’s lyrics and observations of their hometown.

Written by Georgia State University professor Maurice J. Hobson, the 2019 book gives an unflinching perspective on how Black leadership beginning with its first Black mayor, Maynard Jackson, created a new brand identity and progress for Atlanta as “a Black Mecca.” However, it came at the risk of abandoning low-income, working-class people, so Hobson includes those unheard voices along with a few hip-hop artists to show how progressive politics presented conflicting views of the city’s image and what happened to those communities.

“The Legend of the Black Mecca” combines policy, oral histories and pop culture that can encourage listeners and readers to get a better grasp on the Atlanta that OutKast grew up in and was inspired by.

“The Vibe History of Hip-Hop” edited by Alan Light

Veteran music journalist Alan Light edited "The Vibe History of Hip Hop" in the 1990s, which included, of course, OutKast. (Courtesy of Three Rivers Press)

In the early 1990s, Vibe Magazine was a publication created by producer Quincy Jones to capture and document Black popular culture, especially hip-hop.

“The Vibe History of Hip-Hop” is the magazine’s coffee table-sized, soft cover book that traces the origins of hip-hop through its mainstream success in the late ‘90s. Edited by veteran music journalist Alan Light, the book published in 1999 includes photographs and artist interviews from Vibe’s archives. It’s also divided into chapters that examine regional hip-hop, particularly from the South and how OutKast went from underdogs to a burgeoning marquee act.

“The Vibe History of Hip-Hop” paints a full picture of how hip-hop culture evolved while showcasing what was to come in the 2000s and beyond.

“Flyboy 2: The Greg Tate Reader”

"Flyboy 2: The Greg Tate Reader" includes an essay on OutKast's double and fifth album, “Speakerboxxx/The Love Below." (Courtesy of Duke University Press)

For three decades, Black pop critic and musician Greg Tate captured the essence and range of Black music and expressiveness until his death in December 2021.