Ms. Jackson

Ms. Jackson

OutKast

The second single from Stankonia, “Ms. Jackson” catapulted the Southern rap duo OutKast into the mainstream, reaching the top 5 in several countries and becoming their first of three #1 songs on the Billboard Hot 100. It also won the Grammy for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group in 2002. The name “Jackson” was chosen because the pair felt it is “one of the most common names that people could relate to.”

André and Big Boi pulled from personal experiences to create this song, and Andre said the following regarding how his relationship with singer Erykah Badu influenced his verse:

“Ms. Jackson” came from just wondering — after a relationship kinda goes to the left — about a parent of a girl who has a child, like, how does she feel about the situation? And that’s what birthed that song.

But it’s like my whole situation — me and Erykah, what we went through — that is the inspiration for the song because I had to go through it to know about it, to even think of something like that.

Badu admitted in 2016 that the song was a “sore spot” for her, but that her mother embraced being the song’s inspiration to the point of purchasing a license plate that says “MSJACKSON”.