Liberation chords by OutKast

Wrapped around a cosmic jam that travels backward through the Middle Passage, the eight-and-a-half minute opus gives trill niggas who missed a lotta church a dose of new age liberation theology to "shake that load off." Kawan Prather: Yeah, that [song featured] Erykah, Big Rube, Cee-Lo - again random occurrences. Dre's baby mama was Erykah Badu. I mean, damn, why wouldn't you put your baby mama on the record if she's Erykah Badu? It's not like he came to the studio and said, 'I want to put my girl on the song,' and this bitch work at the Varsity. She's Erykah Badu. Okay, do it. Andre 3000: We were riding in the car and Erykah was originally supposed to be on "SpottieOttie" and somehow it ended up working out where she fit better on that. So she went off and wrote her thing and ended up coming back with something cool. Cee-Lo: I remember we were outside shooting a video for Sleepy Brown and I think me and Big Boi were maybe burning something and he was listening to the beat, sitting out there in the car. I heard that beat and it just spoke to me. Mr. DJ: Dre loved experimenting - not even starting out with samples, just starting out with live instruments. Andre 3000: I was working on the music at home on the piano. And I think [Marvin] Chanz [Parkman] played on that one. He started playing these chords and then we all started vibing out and kicking in, and what you have there is the jam session. Marvin Chanz Parkman: We had been up all night. It was like 3 in the morning. They went and pulled the baby grand out, pulled the track up and when we got through I think it was 6 a.m. We got into it, I got to running on that piano and just got lost in the vibe. Preston Crump: I didn't know what they were going to do with the song. They had some chords and I remember feeling like it sounded like War, so I tried to stay away from that. We just vibed that one out with no vocals and I remember being at the studio later when Cee-Lo was laying his vocals and stuff. I was like, 'Oh, I see. Wow.' Cee-Lo: What inspired those words, I can't say. I was out of my mind during that time. I was just very, very obedient to what was moving and motivating me. And, of course, to be liberal and to be liberated was an artistic aspiration and a personal aspiration of mine, too, so it was just all relative. Andre 3000: Once we had the music I just went off and started writing my verse. I started it off and Big Boi came after me. And then Erykah came in and killed it. Mr. DJ: The singing just felt right. That's where it was heading. That was what OutKast was all about anyway. It just felt like a natural progression. And that was towards the end of the album when you knew it was about to take that turn,'cause Dre started to do it more and more after that. Joi: The whole song was done and Dre was like, 'I really want you and Peaches to put something on this bridge for the breakdown part.' Peaches and I kinda listened and I started writing. I feel like [Atlanta rap duo] YoungBloodz might've had [their single] "Shake 'Em Off" out. Just that whole idea of shaking something off, the idea of being specific about it and making it a little more serious - specifically the load - y'know, "shake that load off." We just kinda kept going in with that. Neal H. Pogue: Joi and Peach were big friends then. They hung tough. Peach has been gone for awhile now, so that's good that she was on that record. Andre 3000: Joi and Peach were like two pistols on your hip they were so reliable, and they would always give you more. I was going to [form] a group with them. Screechy Peach's voice was like all over the place and then Joi was so smooth with it and she could get funky. You got them and Preston, Vic and Chanz, and Omar's percussion work on that album was superb. He added a character to that album. That was a really good time because we'd found our sound. We didn't care what other motherfuckers thought 'cause we didn't have anything to live up to but ourselves. By that time we'd gotten to a point where we were in our own world. Anything we did, it was to impress ourselves. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.