Antwan Andre Patton, better known by his stage name Big Boi, is an American rapper, song-writer, record producer and actor, best known for being a member of American Hip Hop duo Outkast alongside Andre 3000. After four increasingly successful albums as a duo, the members of Outkast chose to make two solo albums, and release them as a double album under the Outkast name. Andre 3000 released The Love Below and Big Boi Speakerboxxx. The two albums were packaged together as Speakerboxxx/The Love Below in 2003. Speakerboxxx featured a style similar to Outkast’s previous efforts, while The Love Below explored more offbeat territory, with Andre 3000 mainly singing rather than his usual rapping. One song from each album was released in September 2003 as a single. Patton’s choice was the single “The Way You Move,” featuring Sleepy Brown. It was originally supported by urban radio, but then crossed over to pop charts and became almost as big a pop hit as Andre 3000’s “Hey Ya!” “The Way You Move” supplanted “Hey Ya!” as the number one song on the U.S. pop charts. In 2007 after the sixth album under the OutKast name, Idlewild, Big Boi announced plans to release a full-fledged solo album. The album was to be titled Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty. The album’s first promotional single, “Royal Flush,” was released in 2007, and featured Raekwon and Andre 3000. Over the next few years the album saw many delays, but multiple promotional and video singles were released such as “Shine Blockas” featuring Gucci Mane, “For Yo Sorrows” featuring George Clinton and Too $hort and “General Patton” featuring Big Rube. The first official single was “Shutterbugg” featuring Cutty and the second “Follow Us” featuring Vonnegutt. The album was released internationally on July 5.
