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Animating a Classic: OK Motion Club on Visualizing OutKast’s 'SpottieOttie' for 'Aquemini's 25th

Animating a Classic: OK Motion Club on Visualizing OutKast’s 'SpottieOttie' for 'Aquemini's 25th

Published Fri, September 29, 2023 at 12:00 PM EDT

It's the 25th anniversary of OutKast's landmark album, Aquemini, and with it comes a new animated video for "SpottieOttieDopaliscious."

Directed by OK Motion Club, a woman-owned and run animation studio based in Atlanta, the psychedelic video features clips that bring the most quotable lines from the classic to life.

"Our animation and illustration style lives in a vibrant world somewhere between nostalgia and psychedelia, often mixing traditional and experimental processes," founders Amanda Schrembeck and Linda McNeil told Rock The Bells. "Our goal is to empower other women and non-binary people in the industry by hosting talks and workshops through initiatives like Ladies, Wine & Design."

Rock The Bells caught up with the design duo to understand their approach to visualizing this Hip-Hop classic.

How'd this collaboration come about?

OK Motion Club is repped by the production company Flesh & Bones who has great a relationship with Sony, OutKast’s record label. They invited us to pitch on their request for a music video to celebrate Aquemini’s 25th Anniversary. Being from Atlanta and knowing how iconic that song is, it was an immediate yes from us.

"SpottieOttie..." isn't OutKast's biggest hit but it's definitely one that defines their sound, style, and creativity — plus, it's a fan favorite. It's never had a video. Keeping that in mind, what was your approach to creating this visual?

With a song that widely known, there was a lot of pressure for us to bring something fresh and also do it justice. Technically speaking, creating a music video for a group that is no longer together or having any footage to work with was a hurdle, so we leaned heavily into illustration, 3D and collage elements to create the story. We also wove in a lot of sci-fi, Afrofuturism and astrological elements that were big influences for OutKast’s album Aquemini. In the end, we wanted the entire video to feel like one long trippy story being told about someone’s first experience at a night club. 

Loved that there's a stallion on skates. I was watching the video on silent and instantly knew what part of Big Boi's verse was playing. What are your personal favorite moments in the video?

The brown stallion on skates was easily one of our favorites as well! I think we both really loved the moment when the two star signs finally meet to form the Aquemini chalice. We wanted to find a way that two people could come together to form something new without overtly showing them having a child. And I think that mindset holds true for the whole video, we wanted to visually represent the story being told from a new perspective. 

It's the 25th anniversary of Aquemini, widely considered to be not just one of the best Hip-Hop albums but one of the best albums of all time, period. What does this album mean to you on a creative level?

It’s honestly hard to put into words how influential this album and duo is to the city of Atlanta and to us as individuals. They truly changed the creative landscape, so getting to collaborate with them on this project is the honor of a lifetime. Their lyricism and creativity are unmatched, so we really had to push ourselves to deliver something we’d be proud of for many years to come.

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