“Hey Ya” is Outkast‘s biggest hit and most streamed song and it could not be escaped in 2003 and 2004. It and its music video were ubiquitous. It was the seventh biggest song of the year but felt even bigger. Billboard once listed it as the 145th biggest song of all time.
It is also, notably, not really like previous Outkast hits. Performed by André 3000 without Big Boi, as their album Speakerboxxx/The Love Below was actually two solo albums combined into a double album and released under the Outkast name due to label pressure. “Hey Ya” is, at times, closer to the neo soul version of power pop than it is hip hop. And there are a few distinct elements that seem essential to the song – the two-word chorus of course but also that little keyboard hook and the famous break.
So who better to cover “Hey Ya” than a hard rock band? Return to Dust are a grunge-influenced band from Los Angeles who released their debut album in 2024. For their cover of “Hey Ya,” they’re joined by guitarist Mat Mitchell of Puscifer.
So the first thing they do to throw us for a loop is slow it down. Not a ton, but a little. And there’s static as if we’re listening to an old recording even though the sound of that acoustic is extremely ’90s alternative. Then the loud rock guitars come in with the chorus and Mitchell gets a brief fill. The drums are turned up to 11 and the entire thing is extremely heavy. There’s a guitar solo before much of the heaviness drops out before another repeat of the chorus.
They cut much of the lyrics out and, perhaps most controversially, the break. I guess it’s hard to imagine a hard rock band doing that break and Return to Dust have opted instead to double up on the heaviness. So they’ve dropped two of the song’s most distinct elements – the keyboard melody, the break – to lean into the chorus. It’s an interesting choice but it allows for plenty of heavy riffing and pummeling drums.
