OutKast is widely known as one of the greatest and most influential rap acts of all time, but one early page in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees’ history is often overshadowed by the unprecedented commercial and critical success that members André 3000 and Big Boi would achieve in the ensuing decade-and-a-half: “Player’s Ball”, the single that introduced OutKast to the world in late 1993, was a Christmas song.
In the early ’90s, Atlanta was just beginning to cement itself as a hip-hop hotbed, with Jermaine Dupri-produced crossover acts like Kriss Kross and TLC blazing up the charts. But as Goodie Mob member Cee Lo Green noted in “The Dirty South” episode of the Netflix docu-series Hip-Hop Evolution (Season 3), the pop-oriented releases that were gaining recognition for the Atlanta scene didn’t reflect the true nature of everyday life and culture in the southern city. “Kris Kross, we didn’t really consider it hip-hop. There was a void that was there,” Cee Lo explained. Added fellow ATL native and rapper Killer Mike, “Jermaine gave us a group out of the stratosphere [with Kris Kross], but that was still a group based on a sound that was outside of Atlanta.”
In the early ’90s, however, a trio of producers—Rico Wade, Sleepy Brown, and Ray Murray, better known as Organized Noize—cooked up some new sounds in a basement in southeast Atlanta, affectionately known as “The Dungeon”, that would help define the city’s hip-hop character for decades to come. All they needed were the right voices to bring it to life.
In 1992, Organized Noize was introduced to a pair of unusual local high school kids with an even more unusual approach to rapping. Their names were André Benjamin and Antwan Patton, but the world would come to know them as André 3000 and Big Boi—the two sides of the enigmatic musical coin called OutKast.
In OutKast, Organized Noize found its mouthpiece for the new Atlanta sound. Soon after, the production team was recruited by Atlanta’s LaFace Records to produce a set of remixes for TLC‘s 1992 album, Ooooooohhh… On the TLC Tip, and had André 300 and Big Boi rap over them. The team at LaFace—founded in 1989 by Antonio “L.A.” Reid and Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds and focused at the time on R&B acts like TLC, Toni Braxton, and Usher—went on to sign both Organized Noize and OutKast on the merit of their TLC remixes, with OutKast becoming the label’s first rap act.
Throughout 1993, OutKast, Organized Noize, and the rest of the Dungeon Family dug into the writing and recording of what would become the duo’s 1994 debut LP, Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik. Among the songs they recorded for the album was “Player’s Ball”, a track inspired by a Kurtis Blow Christmas record about what they really do on Christmas in the Dirty South.
In addition to the unmistakable sleigh bells included in the song’s beat, the original version of “Player’s Ball” featured numerous allusions to Christmas amid its depiction of the Atlanta streets’ yuletide traditions, from borrowed bits of holiday song imagery to its Sleepy Brown-sung hook, which ended, “Now I’m here to tell you there’s a better day / When the player’s ball is happening, on Christmas Day.”
OutKast – “Player’s Ball” (1993) – Original Christmas Version
In November 1993, LaFace Records included “Player’s Ball” on a new holiday compilation album, A LaFace Family Christmas, alongside tracks performed by other LaFace artists like Toni Braxton, Usher, TLC, McArthur, and A Few Good Men. While it was by far the least traditional Christmas song on the collection, it captured the attention of listeners in Atlanta and beyond with its novel, Southern streets-oriented view of the holidays.
It was the first of many times that OutKast’s unique local perspective broke out past Atlanta and into the cultural conversation at large: As André 3000 famously iterated at the 1995 Source Awards, when OutKast won Best New Artist amidst heated rap rivalries between the East Coast and the West Coast, “The South got something to say!”
A LaFace Family Christmas 1993 – Full Compilation Album
When “Player’s Ball” was released as part of Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik a few months later, many of its more explicit Christmas references were adjusted to give the song mass appeal beyond the winter season (i.e. “When the player’s ball is happening, on Christmas Day” became “When the player’s ball is happening, all day ery’day“), and the song went on to reach the No. 1 spot on Billboard‘s Hot Rap Songs chart, making it the duo’s first hit and officially putting OutKast—and the Atlanta scene as a whole—on the national hip-hop map.
So, this week, when someone at your holiday gathering asks you to play Christmas music but you’re already tired of “Jingle Bell Rock“, you can give them a smile and a nod and queue up OutKast’s “Player’s Ball”. We’re not saying your mom is going to like it, but hey, Christmas music is Christmas music. We don’t make the rules.
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Below, revisit the original Christmas lyrics to “Player’s Ball” by OutKast and watch the 1994 music video featuring the adjusted lyrics.
OutKast – “Player’s Ball” (Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik Version) (Official Video)