Entry · catalog no. 4342
ATLien
/ /ˈeɪtiːˌɛliən/ /AY-tee-EE-lee-un
noun · Atlanta, Georgia · 1990s
✓ Verified
1.
A Black Atlantan understood as estranged or othered: alien to a coastal industry that would not hear the South, and sometimes alien in a city changing underneath them. This is OutKast's original sense.
“They booed us off in New York, so we came home and made a record about being ATLiens.”
2.
In everyday later use, simply a native or resident of Atlanta, with the alienation drained out of it.
“Every ATLien knows to avoid the Downtown Connector at five.”
Origin & Attribution
Atlanta, 1996 — East Point and College Park, the Dungeon Family and LaFace orbit, carried by André 3000 and Big Boi with Organized Noize behind the boards. The word is a portmanteau of ATL and alien, and it came directly out of being dismissed by a coastal industry; the 1995 Source Awards booing is the standard backdrop. André put the gloss on the record himself: the ATL for Atlanta, the aliens for our status in the hip-hop game.
1995
OutKast booed at the Source Awards in New York; André answers that the South got something to say
1996
ATLiens released on LaFace, 27 August; the title track issued as a single
2010s
Atlanta media, sports accounts and tourism copy adopt ATLien as the city's plain demonym
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
Nationwide
Atlanta, Georgia · 1990s
Spoken by
Atlanta rappers and residents
$ATLIENThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Enduring0 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
62/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
1996
in the culture
Mainstream crossover
1996
search interest spikes
Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.
Hear it spoken
By region — how it actually sounds
@auntiereg
Atlanta, GA
@deltasoul
Memphis, TN
Contribute your pronunciation
Citations & Sources
■
OutKast, ATLiens (LaFace/Arista), released 27 August
1996
■
Billboard, Outkast ATLiens: 11 Things You Might Not Know
2016
■
+ Cite a sourceAndré 3000 interviewed in the Los Angeles Times on the album title
1996
See also