The South Still Got Something To Say

In 2025, actor, writer, and performer Donald Glover took the stage at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles to honor the duo that put Atlanta on the hip hop map.

OutKast.

[cheering] Glover was there to help induct them into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

OutKast was able to distill the polarizing nature of being not just from the South, not just being Black, but being a human in a very polarizing and contradicting world.

[cheering] [clapping] In 1995, the hip hop industry was focused on music coming out of the East and West Coast, but at that year's Source Awards, it was OutKast who took home the award for New Artist of the Year.

People were shocked.

The audience actually booed, and in the midst of that, André 3000 said something that's become a rallying cry.

But it's like this, the South got something to say.

That's all I got to say.

Yeah.

[cheering] [clapping]

Donald Glover reflected on that moment.

And to stand on stage and say, "The South got something to say" [cheering] [clapping] while being booed taught me how to deal with critics.

Glover created the genre-defying, critically acclaimed TV series Atlanta.

You don't have to scream.

You don't have to yell.

You just have to be undeniable.

That's right.

[cheering] [clapping]

He credited seeing the duo's boldness in the face of doubters, their creativity, and their persistence in pushing boundaries as an example for his own artistic output.

If I had to describe what I thought a 13 times platinum highest selling rap album in the world would be in 2003, it probably wouldn't have been a rap duo, and it probably wouldn't have been a double album that split the genre in half with two consecutive number one songs.

[cheering] [clapping] It probably would've been that, because that sounds insane until it isn't, until you see it and feel it and know it.

To Glover, OutKast demonstrated how art can be the seeds for reimagining.

Together, you proved that art can argue and harmonize all at once.

Hearing Donald Glover speak about OutKast's innovation and influence, it's reminiscent of my thoughts on democracy and what we need to reimagine it today, something not being until it is, the bold creativity it takes to make change, especially in the face of opposition, the way that we build power when we create space for difference.