Hailing from College Park, GA, rapper Slimm Calhoun grew up listening to the groundbreaking hip-hop sounds of Run-DMC, Kurtis Blow, and Grandmaster Flash. In 1994 he hooked up with Outkast and the Dungeon Family crew, who took Calhoun under their wing. Calhoun signed to Outkast's own label, Aquemini (via Elektra), in the late '90s. His Aquemini debut, The Skinny, was originally supposed to be issued in mid-2000, but its release date kept getting pushed back until April 2001. Despite the delay, Calhoun kept himself busy by guesting on Outkast's breakthrough album, Stankonia (the track "Gangsta Shit"), and toured with Outkast as part of the rapper's Stank Love tour, joining in on a medley of three songs from The Skinny each night.