MUSIC 26AC Lecture 19: November 14
Case “tudies November 4, 7
• Outkast – Rosa Parks (3rd studio album)
o Hip hop duo from Atlanta: Big Boi and Andre 3000
o 6 studio albums, biggest hits albums, and Grammy awards throughout their career
o Outside the west coast/east coast scene and dynamic – entrenched in the discussion at the
time
o Outlandish lyrics and costumes (bright wigs, bright clothing, wild/big/bold/bright clothing as a
statement)
o Represetig theselves as alies fro spae to portray theselves as outside the
persona of east/west
o Promotes natural hair styles – not taming their hair to look good for a broader audience
o Turn towards a more vintage look through the way they dress and the way they groom
themselves
o Influences from psychedelic rock, reggae, etc. = more musically adventurous
o Departure from the hip hop party vibe from first album. Andre 3000 takes things to a new
real to otrast Big Boi’s hip hop iage
o Wider subject matter: substance abuse, being lost within US society, explicit conversation
about race/racial dynamics on a national level, live instrumentation, improvisation in the
studio with artists
o Sonic and musical references that represents the Atlanta area
o Album was critically acclaimed for the past 20 years and century – listened within and outside
the hip hop circle
• Racial segregation
o Upholding of Plessy v. Ferguson
o If the bus was full, then no one should be forced to move. Bus drivers started to push black
people to move when the bus was full
o Rosa Parks initiated a bus boycott for 381 days
o Consequences: received death threats, fired from her job as a seamstress, moved to
Detroit, continued to do racial justice organizing and work
• Song in relation to the lawsuit (1991)
o “ued the reord lael for usig Rosa Parks’ ae - Defamed her name and constituted as
false advertising
o Rosa Parks v. OutKast & LaFace
▪ Constituted false advertising – misleading people about Rosa Parks
▪ Infringed on her right of publicity – someone who is in a celebrity status should be
protected from commercial exploitation; should be able to control her image and not
allow people to make money using her name
▪ Defamed her character – perhaps there were false statements used in the song;
explicit content label that would appear alongside her name
▪ Interfered with an ongoing business relationship
▪ Key issue = use of Park’s ae as title of sog ad relevae to the rest of the
content
• Outcome of the lawsuit
o Believed that the youger geeratio does’t hoor the historial suesses
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