Speakerboxxx/The Love Below achieved 13x-Platinum status, according to the Recording Industry Association of America. Thus, the 2003 double LP by OutKast is among the best-selling records across all genres.
Talkboxxx and The Love When Below was released two decades ago, it quickly became a cultural phenomenon. In its first week of sales, OutKast's fifth studio album sold over 510,000 copies, meaning it debuted at number one.
The André 3000-focused single "Hey Ya!" and the Big Boi-focused "The Way You Move" track both peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. "Hey Ya!" spent nine weeks at the top of the Hot 100 charts.
Talkboxxx and The Love Additionally, Below became the second Hip-Hop effort to win Album of the Year at the Grammy Awards. The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (10x-Platinum) with a Diamond certification took home the same prize at the 1999 Grammy Awards.
A second full-length album by OutKast is presently halfway to Diamond certification. In November 2021, the RIAA recognized 2000's Stankonia as five times platinum. Speakerboxxx/The Love Below and Stankonia both took home Grammys for Best Rap Album.
The record for the most RIAA certified Hip-Hop album was previously held by Eminem's The Eminem Show (12x-Platinum). The Detroit rapper also won RIAA Diamond Awards for Curtain Call: The Hits (10x-Platinum) in 2005 and The Marshall Mathers LP (11x-Platinum) in 2000.
Additional Diamond-certified rap albums are: Beastie Boys' Licensed to Ill (10x-Platinum); The Notorious B.I.G.'s Life After Death (11x-Platinum); 2Pac's Greatest Hits (10x-Platinum); Nelly's Country Grammar (10x-Platinum); and MC Hammer's Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em (10x-Platinum).
It seems like a very tough task for OutKast, Eminem, or any other Hip-Hop act to ever break the all-time RIAA certification record. Right now, Michael Jackson's 34x-Platinum album Thriller and the Eagles' 38x-Platinum album Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975) are fighting for the top spot.