Who was Ms Jackson and why were Outkast sorry?
When Nick Cave rejected an MTV award, he penned in an open letter: “My muse is not a horse, and I am in no horse race and if indeed she was. Still I would not harness her to this tumbrel — this bloody cart of severed heads and glittering prizes. My muse may spook! May bolt! May abandon me completely!” While all artists would agree on the mystic nature of inspiration, there are moments when the muse is not some fragile figment but rather very real and detectable. Outkast know the latter well.
These moments when songwriters get sincere and grounded with their odes, lambasts, laments or love letters to their muse are sometimes when music is at its very best. They call upon a deeper sense of introspection that goes beyond noodling away in the studio until you have crafted something resembling a song. When the muse enters the fore, the songwriting committee is sent packing, and an act of individualism comes racing out.
The benefits of this became apparent in 2000 when Outkast stormed the charts with ‘Ms Jackson’. From humble beginnings, it went on to top the charts. “‘Ms Jackson’ was an acoustic guitar song that I was doing at home. Then I just converted it over into something people could understand a little bit more,” Andre 3000 explained of its inception.
With samples of the Brothers Johnson and the Shuggie Otis classic ‘Strawberry Letter 23’, this humble beginning became layered with depth and innovation. There was a sense of drama, mystery and undeniable catchiness that all amounted to making it one of the most defining songs of the entire era. At its core, there was a question that provided culture with a watercooler moment: Who was Ms Jackson?
So, who inspired ‘Ms Jackson’?
Well, the most brutal thing about a break-up is often that you lose a lot more people than merely the one you’re saying farewell to. Andre 3000 wanted to cushion that blow by offering a heartfelt apology to Erykah Badu’s mother when he split from the R&B star after a brief romance. But it didn’t go down all that well for the ‘Love Of My Life’ singer.
“It hit kind of a sore spot,” Badu recalled on the Rap Radar podcast. “I didn’t wanna hear that, especially when I heard Big Boi’s verse. When I heard Andre’s verse, I felt very good because his verse was really, really inspiring. He just said how he felt and it was his honest feelings and I always respected that and listened to what he felt and appreciated it.”
As for her mother, Badu added: “How did my mama feel? Baby, she bought herself a ‘Ms. Jackson’ licence plate, she had the mug, she had the ink pen, she had the headband, everything. That’s who loved it.” And therein lies the beauty not only of this indelible anthem but Outkast in general: they always bring a level of alleviating fun to everything. They even had people dancing to the utterly heartbreaking ‘Hey Ya’. Hell, even the pets in the ‘Ms Jackson’ are dancing despite their abode being cursed.
