OUTKAST-ATLiens

Watch this Outkast video for the track 'Elevators' very carefully, as I am about to break down the esoteric/occult/ hidden meanings and symbols within the video scene by scene.

0:00- The first shot of the video is one where the camera zooms into the earth and we see a group of people, mainly black making their way through a forest. This group of people represents the Israelites, a wandering tribe making their way through the forest of life. The forest setting is very significant because it demonstrates a link between man and nature which has arguably been lost in modern times. If you look carefully the group have an Alsatian with them. This is almost certainly a reference to the star Sirius B, which is the brighest star in the night sky and also known as the 'dog star' or 'wolf star'.

0:20-We see a boy reading a comic book called, 'ATLiens- An Outkast Encounter'. This is included in the video because comic books are a medium where many occult, esoteric and scientific principles are explored. Also the title of the comic contains the word 'encounter', which reminds me of Steven Spielberg's film, 'Close Encounters Of the Third Kind', in which music is used to communicate with extra terrestrials.

0:25 We see Andre Benjamin creeping through a classroom. This is because he is literally about to take you back to school and drop some serious knowledge on you, both visually and aurally.
Andre 3000 is also wearing a turban, probably to draw a link between modern-day African-Americans and Canaanites/Israelites who used to wear turbans in the Holy Land. Similar head gear was also rocked by Native Americans such as the Cherokee.
Also the school system in America is particuarly well known for leaving out a large chunk of History concerning peoples with a high concentration of melanin.

1:20 Andre throws his Mortar Board or square academic hat away in favour of his turban. He is dismissing western tradition in favour of a more ancient, esoteric tradition.

2:20 We observe what looks like personnel from the U.S army and two men dressed in plastic radiation suits hot on the heels of the wandering tribe. These suits remind me of the Men In Black movies, starring Will Smith. This is exactly what these people in the video are meant to represent; a government agency trying to keep something unknown or ALIEN under wraps.

3:10-3:43 Andre 3000 touches a tree, but when the government agent looks at the tree using his special eyewear the tree exudes some kind of alien residue. Also when the agents look at Oukast throught their binoculars they are cleary shown to be aliens. Why is this? There are two possible explanations: firstly, Outkast are saying that they are aliens, and they believe their ancestors came from outer space. Or they are saying that we are 'outcasts' or 'aliens' in the sense that we are so unique and don't follow the norm or tradition thus we remain outsiders, outcasts or aliens. Also this track comes from the album ATLiens, released in'96. There weren't many rap crews in those days from the ATL, this also represents their alien or outsider status.

3:55 The final scene of the video shows the wandering tribe reach their destination, a city containing many pyramids, an obelisk and only black people. This is meant to be the promised land. This scene is meant to remind us of Egypt, because of all the pyramids, but it is not necessarily so, because there are pyramids all over the world including modern day America, China and all over Africa.

Outkast and the director of the video have done a very good job alluding to many myths, esoterica and history in their video and interweaving it all so seamlessly. This video is absolutely teaming with clues to the thinking of the group if you just know where to look.

PEACE