DAY 2

OutKast is a hip-hop group rooted in Atlanta, Georgia fronted by André 3000 and Big Boi. The group was known for their rapid-fire, Southern slang heavy flows, eccentric lyrical topics and themes, and fusion of several music genres, from rock to gospel. The group's aesthetic of combining the Southern gangsta rap narratives with left-field experimentation allows for common post-modern tropes to be found in their music and lyrics, such as the case with their hit single Rosa Parks.

Hehe, post-modern tropes. It's ironic, guys.

The post-modern themes of conflicting identities and the rejection of a singular truth of what something should be, both of which appear in this single. As stated above, OutKast has always been a group that chooses to challenge its audience's perceptions of hip-hop through conflicting the image with the sound and sometimes the sound with the sound. One only needs to look at Andre 3000's wardrobe to get an idea of what image conflict exists within OutKast, and as for the song, well, let's get into it. Genre-purists could argue that this is an example of country-rap, as the backing beat is laid out through an acoustic guitar, accentuated with DJ scratches, and a mid-song hoedown. The first and third song elements are pretty uncommon in hip-hop, especially songs that manage to overtake the game and change its course of history forever. OutKast rejects the notion that hip-hop has to be a certain way in every song and action they take, and Rosa Parks furthers this theme by being such an oddball of a song and lyrically subverting the glory of Rosa Parks, the person, into something that is simply more of a part of African-American history. The name conjures images of glory, anti-racism, and women's bravery in the eyes of doe-eyed white high school students, but to OutKast it means rebellion and Southern pride.

Peep this shtuff right with this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drsQLEU0N1Y

References:

Benjamin, Andre, and Antwan Patton. Rosa Parks. OutKast. OutKast, 1997. MP3.