OutKast & Salt-N-Pepa Heading To The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Class of 2025

Trailblazing Southern rap duo OutKast is heading to The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame has announced its 2025 class. When much of hip-hop’s attention in the mid-1990s was focused on the west coast vs. east coast rivalry, OutKast turned heads in a completely new direction: towards the South. The groundbreaking duo made up of Big Boi and André 3000 released its debut album in 1994, when they were still teenagers, and marked Atlanta as an epicenter of musical innovation with albums like ATLiens, Aquemini and the Grammy-winning Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. Over the last few years, the Hall has been admitting one hip-hop act each year — A Tribe Called Quest last year, Missy Elliott and Eminem and LL Cool J before that. But the Rock Hall isn’t the only pop music institution who has failed to adequately reward the genre: In the 21 years since OutKasttook the prize, no other rap album has won the album of the year prize at the Grammys. OutKast has been eligible since 2019. The group received its first nomination this year.

Advertisements

Salt-N-Pepa is also into the Hall of Fame Under Musical Influence Award. Salt-N-Pepa was not only the first female rap group to have a platinum album and to win a Grammy — they also led an emblematic crossover from hip-hop to mainstream pop with hits like “Push It,” “Shoop,” and “Whatta Man.” The group, made up of Cheryl “Salt” James, Sandra “Pepa” Denton and Deidra Roper, a.k.a. DJ Spinderella, was honored by the Rock Hall during a special 2023 exhibit celebrating hip-hop’s 50th anniversary. Musical Influence Award category (acts who have been selected by its contingent of voters) in order to recognize “artists whose music and performance style have directly influenced, inspired, and evolved rock & roll and music impacting culture.”

Here is the 2025 class of inductees: Chubby Checker, Thom Bell, Bad Company, Cyndi Lauper, Joe Cocker, Carol Kaye, Soundgarden, The White Stripes, Warren Zevon, Nicky Hopkins & Lenny Waronker

Source: NPR