BIG BOI & J.I.D

Two of the sharpest lyricists in Atlanta meet up at Stankonia Studios the birthplace of too many classic verses to count to trade industry stories and favourite bars, and talk about how they want to see hip-hop keep evolving

- DELISA SHANNON

TLANTA'S storied Stankonia Studios feel like the site of a family reunion as J.I.D walks in with a grin and daps up Big Boi with Stevie Wonder's 'As' spilling from the speakers. Both are soft-spoken, and you can barely hear what they say to each other as they exchange greetings. But it's a safe guess that they're taking a moment to show respect for each other's approach to life and their shared craft.

Fifty years after hip-hop began in the Bronx, both of these Atlanta rappers have done their part to expand the definition of the genre. Start. in 1994, when Big Boi and André 3000 created a bible for Southern hip-hop with Outkast's Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, written in the basement studio they called the Dungeon and recorded right here. Or flash-forward to 2022, when J.I.D recorded parts of his most recent, and most personal, offering, The Forever Story, in these same studios. Big Boi helped establish that Atlanta can never be left out of the conversation, and J.I.D has helped maintain the standard he set.

With the cameras on and lights up, they settle into a languid Southern rhythm. Much like their rhymes, their conversation feels like a latesummer evening full of lightning — bright flashes that illuminate everything in sight, unpredictable yet direct. Big Boi, 48, cracks a joke that sends J.I.D, 33, into a fit of laughter. J.I.D fires something back that brings a large smile to Big Boi’s face.

Big Boi reminds us that this isn’t the first time Rolling Stone has asked him to take part in Musicians on Musicians — it’s just the first time he had someone in mind who he wanted to sit down with. This time, when the ask came in, he knew. He snaps his fingers as he recalls how he replied: “I told them, ‘Get me my dawg, man.’”