Practical Magic

You’ve probably heard of David Blaine, the douchebag magician. But have you heard of David Blaine, the sexual manoeuvre?

Introduced to the world, as far as scholars of this kind of thing can tell, on a skit from Big Boi’s debut solo album ‘Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son Of Chico Dusty’, it’s a trick that involves making love to your partner from behind, having a friend take over for you, and then running to a window to wave at your surprised partner from afar. Wait, what? “Everybody needs to try a David Blaine!” shouts the iconic Outkast MC, surprisingly insistent that I give it a try. “It's all about havin' fun with your life, man! Sometimes a girl won't let you, but a girl might wanna try one on you! You never know!”

But don’t think the man known to his mother as Antawn Patton goes around performing illicit sex acts all the time (and don’t even begin to ponder how your girl might ‘try one on you’, unless you’ve got a mental scrubbing brush handy). Only one of his many personalities would do such a thing. “That’s Hot Tub Tony, all the way,” he laughs. “He’s wild... it’s basically all me, man, with different emotions. You know what I’m sayin’? Whether it’s the upbeat MC that’s ready to go, or the laidback guy with some gators on, you know, on the cool level. It’s just giving different parts of my personality a name.”

He’s certainly got a few of them - known aliases include General Patton, Sgt Slaughter, Billy Ocean (not that Billy Ocean), Chitlin’ Pimp, the aforementioned Hot Tub Tony, and of course, the feted Sir Lucious Leftfoot. His second solo LP will also be named after one of his alternate identities - ‘Daddy Fat Sax: Soul Funk Crusader’. “Oh man, it's going to be S-A-X-X-X triple unadulterated funk to the extremest level,” he reveals. “Straight lyrical assassin. The beats are going to be as hard hitting as always. I'mma let everything else be a surprise, and just let it speak for itself.  “I'm 17 songs into it now, and everything is sounding phenomenal. I could put it out tomorrow if I wanted to, but I'mma marinate on it because I'm on the road. I feel good about it, all the music's sounding great. I've just been having fun.”

While he marinates on his next solo LP, fans have plenty of other Big Boi material to look forward to - rumours persist he’ll reteam with Andre 3000 to finally drop a new Outkast LP early next year (“I don't know where that came from,” he says, before carefully noting, “we'll make an announcement when the album's ready.”) Before that, we’ll likely hear his production skills on the next Modest Mouse album.

“They heard my album, 'Sir Lucious Leftfoot',” Big Boi says of the unlikely collaboration. “They loved the way it sounded, they wanted the funk on there. All people have gotta do is go check the catalogue, man. Me and Dre, we've been producers on our albums since ‘ATLiens’.
A lot of people don't know that we're producers and MCs, you know what I'm sayin'? 'Miss Jackson', 'Bombs Over Baghdad', 'Elevators'… we produced those records, you know what I'm sayin'?  “My production hat is very heavy right now. I mean, I just did a record with Jimmy Cliff, the legendary Jimmy Cliff. I put a dope record on him, man. I'm just really havin' fun. The Modest Mouse stuff is incredible, I can't wait until it comes out.”

Before Modest Mouse came calling, Big Boi lent his svengali-like talents to Janelle Monae (‘Tightrope’), taking her from obscurity to worldwide R&B stardom. Expect that relationship to continue. “Definitely, man. Matter of fact, we just had a show out in Berlin with Cypress Hill. We had a fun time kickin' it backstage watching Cypress. You know, to be able to bring new talent to the game… man, that's what it's all about... we're working on her next album now, and I can tell you that she'll be on the new 'Daddy Fat Sax' album.

Big Boi plays The Hi-Fi on Friday August 26 with Theophilus London and Thundamentals.