I called Jermaine [Dupri, artist/producer and head of black music at Virgin], and it was on.

[It influenced the music] in our own little way, just with the Ragtime feel. It's Hip-Hop. It's OutKast. It is what we've been doing for years. Some songs have a little more piano or whatever, but the whole project was a natural progression from a double CD. It was like, where do we go from here?,

The way to judge a new artist is by listening to their albums and gauging the progress that they make from the first record to the next one.

This is a Big Boi thang, not an OutKast thang. I'm doing films, but music is my first love.

I listen to all types of music so I'm influenced by everything.

I'm just a product of my environment, and it comes out in the music.