OutKast have hit plenty of major career milestones since their founding in 1992, but they recently hit their biggest yet, at least numerically.
On Friday (September 29), the duo’s 2003 album Speakerboxxx/The Love Below was certified 13x platinum, meaning it has sold 13 million copies, by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). This makes it the largest-selling rap album ever in the United States.
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The OutKast platter, which contains the duo’s massive single “Hey Ya,” surpassed Eminem‘s The Eminem Show, which was certified 12x platinum in 2022.
OutKast had a little help because of the project’s status as a double album (Big Boi and André 3000 each had one disc), meaning that each copy sold counts twice. Many of Hip Hop’s other top-selling albums are also double LPs, such as Biggie‘s Life After Death and 2Pac‘s All Eyez On Me and Greatest Hits.
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Big Boi celebrated the certification on Instagram by posting a video of him unwrapping a framed plaque commemorating Speakerboxxx/The Love Below‘s 13 million sales.
“Over 13 Million albums sold… outkast is everlasting. Stank You Smelly Much …To All Y’all,” he wrote in the caption.
The biggest-selling album ever of any genre in the U.S. is the Eagles’ 1971-75 greatest hits collection (38x platinum), followed by Michael Jackson’s Thriller (34 times platinum), the Eagles again with Hotel California (26x platinum) and AC/DC’s Back in Black (25x platinum). All of OutKast’s LPs have at least gone platinum, with 2000’s Stankonia their second biggest-selling album at five million sold.
Here is the complete list of top-selling rap albums:
13x Platinum:
- OutKast — Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
12x Platinum:
- Eminem — The Eminem Show
11x Platinum:
- Eminem — The Marshall Mathers LP
- The Notorious B.I.G. — Life After Death
10x Platinum (Diamond):
- 2Pac — All Eyez On Me
- 2Pac — Greatest Hits
- Beastie Boys — Licensed to Ill
- MC Hammer — Please Hammer Don’t Hurt ‘Em
- Lauryn Hill — The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
- Nelly — Country Grammar
- Eminem — Curtain Call: The Hits
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In addition to being certified tredecuple platinum, the ATL-iens have been busy celebrating the 25th anniversary of their arguably perfect third album Aquemini. They recently released an animated music video for “SpottieOttieDopaliscious,” which you can watch below.
