United they plan -- at least for now

LOOKING back on the two-year musical journey that brings the surrealistic, dancing-packed action/dramedy/period film “Idlewild” to theaters Friday, members of Atlanta’s Grammy-winning rap duo OutKast recently conceded that their renowned perfectionism could be viewed in this case as, well, an imperfect science.

When principal photography on the hip-hop musical set in the Prohibition-era Deep South began in 2004, the group had recorded only a few temporary song fragments -- no small oversight considering that ragtime-inspired rap music propels the action in “Idlewild.” The idea was they would finish it in their own time once shooting had wrapped.

“We had some temp tracks, maybe not all the lyrics, but enough to shoot with,” said the group’s Andre “Andre 3000” Benjamin, who costars as a piano-playing mortician in the film. “A lot of the script was written around those songs. But most of it was recorded afterward.”

The soundtrack album (which reached record stores Tuesday), however, remained a work in progress, continuing in fits and spurts until just a few weeks ago. That owed largely to the multiplatinum-selling rapper-producers’ meticulous approach but also their habit of working in isolation: Each bandmate perfects tracks at his respective Atlanta area studio, then they come together to fine-tune them.

“If they hadn’t given us a date and said, ‘This is drop-dead time,’ we could still be working on it now,” said OutKast’s Antwan “Big Boi” Patton, who plays a gin-running speak-easy owner in “Idlewild.”

And despite unrelenting pressure from both studio executives at Universal, the $27-million film’s distributors, and label chiefs at LaFace/Zomba, OutKast’s record label, the group’s painstaking creative process resulted in numerous release date push-backs, budget overruns and a growing din of OutKast breakup rumors.

“Yeah, we won’t do it like that again,” Patton said, puffing on a plastic-tipped cigar.

“It wasn’t like a normal OutKast album where we can say, ‘[Forget] it, it ain’t written,’ ” added Benjamin. “You had millions and millions of dollars riding on it.”

Sharing breakfast

OutKast’s unique “separate but equal” creative chemistry has spawned four of their six platinum albums. And the members hardly acted together in their screen debut -- Patton and Benjamin share only three scenes in “Idlewild” and in conversation quickly dismiss the notion that it is a “buddy film” in any way. And yet the members of OutKast can still present a surprisingly united front when they want to, as they did seated on the restaurant patio at Beverly Hills’ Four Seasons Hotel one recent sunny morning.

Never mind that the two no longer tour together and seldom do press at the same place and time -- or that before recording “Idlewild’s” lead single “Mighty O” they hadn’t sung together since their 2003 hit “Roses.” Over a meal of “well well done” hash browns for Benjamin and an “extremely well done” omelet for Patton, they laughed easily at each other’s jokes and finished each other’s sentences, seeming more like old friends than the outspoken chief executives of OutKast Inc., one of pop music’s most successful acts.

“When I was flying in from Atlanta, I had to go through that machine at the airport that blows air all over you to check for bombs,” Patton recalled. “And I forgot that I had five joints in my pocket. It was too late to find a trash can and I’m like, ‘Where am I gonna throw this weed?’ ”

“That’s when you get those hundred dollar bills ready in your palm,” said Benjamin, a wide smile spreading across his face. “And you come up to the guard like, ‘How can we make this work, partner?’ ” (Patton made it through without being caught.)

Conversation returned to the challenges of creating period music with a modern twist -- songs that not only stand up to OutKast standards (each of their five previous albums has gone platinum) but that also help to propel the film’s narrative.

“It was like, ‘OK, we’re in the ‘30s. So no electronic instruments,’ ” said Benjamin. “But then, after a while, it was like, naw, that ain’t happening.”

“Idlewild’s” music, like the film, presents a stylized, hyper-reality -- an abstraction of the period in which it is set -- where 808 drum kicks peacefully coexist with blues guitar licks. At the urging of Ben Vereen, who plays Benjamin’s character’s domineering father, OutKast went for a big band sound, mining the oeuvre of the famously tuxedoed ‘30s jazz singer and bandleader Cab Calloway. His influence can be felt in the film’s orchestral hip-hop songs (Lil Wayne, Snoop Dogg and Macy Gray make appearances), swing music drum patterns, doo-woppy choruses and glittering tap dances.

The duo also consulted an urban dictionary of ‘30s-era slang for Cotton Club-isms that would sound appropriate within the movie’s ragtime setting but also appropriately street credible with multiplex audiences.

“Like ‘busting my cunk,’ ” Patton said. “That means ... working hard.”

“I’m out here busting my cunk and he’s getting rich?” asked Benjamin, in character. “Sounds pretty hard-core.”

OutKast is contractually obligated to only one more album, and the bandmates have done little to reassure fans of their continuing partnership.

“We have an album we’re gonna do called ‘The Hard 10,’ but people’s expectations get built up about what’s supposed to be,” Patton said. “So we have a pact. We’re gonna keep everything under wraps until we’re ready. We have the idea almost fully blossomed. But we’re gonna keep it secret.”