OutKast Film "Speakerboxxx"

With the dust still not settled on last week's three Grammy wins, OutKast are getting ready to film their first film, Speakerboxx. The HBO movie will begin filming in May and star Big Boi and Andre 3000.

"It's a 1930s period piece and musical," says the film's writer and director Bryan Barber, who characterizes Speakerboxxx as a mix between The Color Purple and Amelie. "A lot of the music inspired the scenes and the scenes inspired other music."

Big Boi and Andre are still the writing music for the soundtrack, which will serve as OutKast's next album and include some outtakes from their Album of the Year-winning Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. "It's funk music," says Big Boi of the OutKast sound. "As long as it's funky and the vibes keep coming we're going to keep grinding it."

Barber shot the videos for the group's "Hey Ya" and "Way You Move" videos and recently finished the one for "Roses." Set in the 1950s, the video features a cameo from Paula Abdul and will hit music channels by the end of the month.

"The idea is like a high school play," Barber says of the clip. "It's like three different cliques at high school. There's a girl named Caroline that's from the Roses clique of people, and then there's the Speakerboxxx gang and the Love Below gang. Basically what happens is a love triangle when Caroline from the Roses clique dates both Dre and Big Boi, and the two find out about each other and fight over her."

• 
  MUSIC 100 Greatest Debut Albums
• 
  MOVIES 'Star Trek' Is Crazy Good
• 
  TV 10 Shows to Watch This Summer
• 
  POLITICS No Price Big Banks Can't Fix

Song Stories

“I'm Yours”

Jason Mraz | 2008

Jason Mraz re-emerged after his disappointing second album with this lead single, a Jack Johnson-esque ditty about giving yourself fully to someone else. The success of the reggae-tinged song (it earned two Grammy nods and a spot on the Billboard singles chart for well over a year) was something the folk-pop singer never predicted when he wrote it in 15 minutes at home. "I played a happy-hippie chord progression that would probably work without 50 different Bob Marley songs," he told Rolling Stone. "I thought, 'It's too novelty. This is a nursery rhyme,'" concluding that "you can never guess what's gonna be a hit."

More Song Stories entries »

Twitter