Antwan André Patton aka Big Boi, is an American rapper, songwriter, actor and record producer, best known for being a member of American hip hop duo Outkast alongside André 3000. His work in the duo has produced six studio albums. Big Boi's solo debut Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty was released in July 2010 to respectable sales and critical acclaim. He released his second studio album, Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors in 2012. Boomiverse, his third studio album, was released in June 2017.
Patton had a strong interest in hip hop music, and met André "3000" Benjamin while attending Tri Cities High School in the early-1990s. The two eventually joined forces as Outkast and signed with LaFace Records.
After four increasingly successful albums as a duo, the members of Outkast chose to make two solo albums, and release them as a double album under the Outkast name. André 3000 released The Love Below and Big Boi released Speakerboxxx. The two albums were packaged together as Speakerboxxx/The Love Below in 2003. Speakerboxxx featured a style similar to Outkast's previous efforts, while The Love Below explored a more offbeat territory, with André 3000 mainly singing rather than his usual rapping. One song from each album was released in September 2003 as a single.
Patton's choice was the single "The Way You Move", featuring Sleepy Brown. It was originally supported by urban radio, but then crossed over to pop charts and became almost as big a pop hit as Benjamin's "Hey Ya!". "The Way You Move" supplanted "Hey Ya!" as the #1 song on the US pop charts. The second single from Big Boi's side of the album was "Ghetto Musick", which featured both members of Outkast and a sample from Patti LaBelle's "Love, Need and Want You".
In 2005, Big Boi released a mixtape/compilation album, Got Purp? Vol 2, in conjunction with the Purple Ribbon All-Stars on November 22 through Purple Ribbon Records; Aquemeni Records had become defunct after Benjamin left the company. The first single from the album was "Kryptonite", which reached 35 on the Billboard Hot 100. Patton was also featured on the song "International Players Anthem (I Choose You)", the first single from UGK's album Underground Kingz.
In 2007, after the sixth album under the Outkast name, Idlewild, Big Boi announced plans to release a full-fledged solo album. While he had released a previous solo album in Speakerboxxx, it still was technically under the Outkast name. The album was to be titled Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty. The album's first promotional single, "Royal Flush", was released in 2007, and featured Raekwon and André 3000. Over the next few years the album saw many delays, but multiple promotional and video singles were released such as "Shine Blockas" featuring Gucci Mane, "For Yo Sorrows" featuring George Clinton and Too Short and "General Patton" featuring Big Rube. The first official single was "Shutterbugg" featuring Cutty and the second "Follow Us" featuring Vonnegutt.
On February 27, 2011, it was announced that Big Boi was creating a joint album along with rappers Mike Bigga and Pill. Later, on April 28, 2011, Big Boi announced that he would be working with Modest Mouse on their upcoming album Strangers to Ourselves. These collaborations have yet to surface.
Later in 2012, Big Boi revealed that he was already ten songs deep into his third studio album. He reiterated his plans for a new studio album in January 2014. He was featured on the Catch The Throne mixtape with the song "Mother of Dragons", it was released for free download on SoundCloud by HBO on March 7, 2014 to promote the fourth season of Game of Thrones.
On March 21, 2014, it was announced that Big Boi had signed a management deal with Jordan Feldstein's Career Artist Management. On May 10, 2014, it was revealed that Big Boi had signed a record deal with Epic Records.
On April 19, 2017, Big Boi revealed that his third studio album would be titled Boomiverse, and that two singles, "Mic Jack" featuring Adam Levine and "Kill Jill" featuring Killer Mike and Jeezy, would be released the following day.
In 2018, Big Boi signed to L.A. Reid and Charles Goldstuck's new label Hitco Music.
Big Boi branched into feature film acting, appearing in ATL and Idlewild, followed by a starring role in 2007's Who's Your Caddy?
Big Boi is a playable character in the Def Jam: Icon video game.
In 2008, Big Boi began a collaboration on a new show with the Atlanta Ballet. The show, entitled big, premiered at the Fox Theater in Atlanta, April 10–13, 2008. The show was performed by Atlanta Ballet dancers, local youth and talent, as choreographed by Lauri Stallings. Music may be performed live onstage during the performance, as it was when the ballet created a live music/dance collaboration with the Indigo Girls.
In 2011, Big Boi was featured by Owl City in one of the four versions of his song, "Alligator Sky". Though the track version featuring Big Boi never made it past the stage of a demo, it was leaked to the internet the same year of the official version of the track.