20 Reasons Why Atlanta is America’s Music Capital

All roads lead to Outkast

Andre 3000: Photograph by Michael Loccisano/Getty; Big Boi: Photograph by Theo Wargo/Getty

In Atlanta’s music scene, no one’s more than a few degrees removed from OutKast.

Photograph by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty

Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms’s transition team includes Killer Mike and…

T.I., who appeared on the video “Electric Lady” for…

Janelle Monáe, who did a remix of her hit “Tightrope” featuring B.o.B. Later, both artists joined…

2 Chainz on stage at 2014’s #ATLast shows—attended by Usher, Jermaine Dupri, and L.A. Reid—starring Big Boi and André 3000, who are… OutKast

Photograph by Ethan Miller/Getty

Ernest Greene, aka Washed Out, was on an Adult Swim album with the Black Lips, who were in a Burn to Shine film with Deerhunter, the Coathangers, and Mastodon (bassist Troy Sanders, above), who…

debuted an album at Criminal Records the same day as the Indigo Girls, who often sang at Eddie’s Attic, which also hosted…

John Mayer, who once shared a Nashville stage with fellow Georgians Gregg Allman and…

Zac Brown, whose song “One Day” was coproduced by CeeLo Green, who almost became a member of… OutKast

Photograph by Theo Wargo/Getty

Lil Uzi Vert was featured on the 2016 hit “Bad and Boujee” by…

Migos, which just announced an upcoming collaboration with…

Lil Yachty and “Trap God” Gucci Mane, whose work has featured pretty much everyone, including Rick Ross and…

Future, whose cousin Rico Wade, of Organized Noize, helped launch… Outkast

Photograph by Matthew Peyton/Getty

Robert McDuffie,  Grammy-nominated violinist and founder of an eponymous Center for Strings at Mercer University, was childhood friends with…

Mike Mills, R.E.M. bassist who teamed up with McDuffie to write and perform an original concerto in 2016. R.E.M.’s “Shiny Happy People” featured vocals by…

Kate Pierson of the B-52s, who celebrated the band’s 40th anniversary by performing with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO), which includes…

Paul Murphy, associate principal viola since 1986, who has performed with Yo-Yo Ma and McDuffie but has also recorded with R.E.M., Indigo Girls, Usher, and… Outkast

Photograph by Dave Kotinsky/Getty

Mac Powell, Third Day frontman, has written country tunes with Sugarland’s…

Kristian Bush, who wrote the score for Troubadour, a world-premiere musical staged by the Alliance Theatre, which is part of the Woodruff Arts Center, also home to the ASO, which was invited by…

Jermaine Dupri to appear on his Lifetime reality TV show, The Rap Game. The founder of So So Def Recordings, Dupri once collaborated with L.A. Reid, Babyface, and Dallas Austin on the album CrazySexyCool by…

TLC, whose iconic song “Waterfalls” came together while their producers, Organized Noize, were working with… Outkast

Photograph by Paras Griffin/Getty

Travis Tritt sang songs written by his high school buddy…

Luke Bryan, featured on “The Only Way I Know” by…

Jason Aldean, who featured Ludacris on a remix of his “Dirt Road Anthem,” and later returned the favor by appearing on “Burning Bridges” by…

Ludacris, who did a 30-city U.S. tour back in 2001 with… Outkast