LOS ANGELES (ESPN press release) - One of music's most popular and successful hip-hop groups, Outkast, will perform the mega-hit "I Like the Way You Move" at the 12th annual ESPY Awards. ESPN will televise the industry-wide sports celebration in a new Sunday time slot - Sunday, July 18 at 9 p.m. ET - from Hollywood's Kodak Theatre.
The event will be taped four days earlier - on Wednesday, July 14.
The ESPY Awards gather top celebrities from sports and entertainment to commemorate the past year in sports by recognizing major sports achievements, reliving unforgettable moments and saluting the leading performers and performances. Actor/comedian Jamie Foxx will host the event.
At this past year's Grammy Awards, Outkast tied Beyonce, Jay-Z and Pharrell Williams for the most nominations with six. The group won Album of the Year for Speakerboxx/The Love Below, the double album released in 2003 which is essentially two solo albums packaged as a single release under the Outkast banner.
Big Boi's Speakerboxxx is a rap-oriented party record, while Andre 3000's The Love Below focuses on live instrumentation and vocals. Outkast also won Best Rap Album for Speakerboxxx/The Love Below and Best Urban/Alternative Performance for "Hey Ya!"
In addition to its tremendous critical acclaim, Speakerboxx/The Love Below is also Outkast's biggest commercial success yet, having debuted on the Billboard albums chart at No 1. The first two singles, which were released nearly simultaneously, Big Boi's "The Way You Move" and Andre's "Hey Ya!," have both become major hits.
Outkast began their career in 1994 with Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, a platinum selling album. The album's first single, "Player's Ball," went gold in a matter of weeks, holding down the No 1 spot on the Billboard chart for six weeks. Their second album, ATLiens, reached platinum status within a few weeks of its release after it entered the Billboard chart at No 2.
The third album, Aquemini (1998), also reached the No 2 position on the charts, while the pair's fourth album, Stankonia (2000), was released to excellent reviews and debuted at No 2.
In 2001, Outkast won a Grammy for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group for their single "Ms. Jackson" and another for Stankonia as Best Rap Album. The next year (2002), they released a greatest hits album, Big Boi and Dre Present ... OutKast, which contained three new songs including the single, "The Whole World," which won the Grammy Award for the 2002 Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group.
The 2004 ESPY Awards will feature 36 different categories, including 17 individual awards and 19 cross-cutter awards (categories that pit athletes from different sports against each other).
For the first time in the event's 12-year history, fans will determine the winners in all categories. On-line fan voting has begun on ESPN.com and polls will close July 9. The move to complete fan voting coincides with the ESPN25 "The Season of the Fan" initiative. The list of various celebrity presenters will be announced soon.
