Big Boi was born and spent the first half of his childhood in Savannah before moving to Georgia's capital of Atlanta. He had a strong interest in hip hop music, and met André "André 3000" Benjamin while attending Tri Cities High School in the late-1980s. The two eventually joined forces as OutKast and signed with LaFace Records.

In contrast to his more sedate partner, Big Boi's on-record persona enjoys partying and employs a more pimp-like mentality. He can be identified by his rapid-fire delivery and intensely intricate rhymes, a style which has become more distinct since the album ATLiens. Big Boi is also the more direct member of the team, and has often used his lyrics to criticize the problems that plague both the African American community and the world.

In addition to his work on many OutKast and Dungeon Family-related material, Big Boi has also been featured on other artists' tracks without André 3000. His most notable guest appearances were on the 1999 Missy Elliott hit, "All N My Grill", the Youngbloodz' "85 South", and Trick Daddy's 2001 single "In Da Wind".

After four increasingly successful albums as a duo, André decided to make a solo album as a side project. Big Boi also produced a solo effort, and the two albums were packaged together as Speakerboxxx/The Love Below in 2003. Big Boi's Speakerboxxx anchored the release with the original OutKast style, and was the half to receive the most recognition from the hip-hop audience. One song from each album was released in September 2003 as a single. Big Boi's choice was the smooth urban single "The Way You Move", featuring Sleepy Brown. It was originally supported by urban radio, but then crossed over to pop charts and became almost as big a pop hit as André's "Hey Ya!". "The Way You Move" supplanted "Hey Ya!" as the #1 song on the US pop charts, one of the few times in music history a group has replaced itself at the top of the charts. The second single from Big Boi's side of the album was "Ghetto Musick", which featured both members of OutKast and a sample from Patti LaBelle's "Love, Need & Want You".

Currently, Big Boi and André are shooting a film about music in the depression-era South. It will premiere in 2006. Big Boi also has plans in the works for a solo album under the moniker "Hot Tub Tony", and a group project partnering him with Sleepy Brown. Big Boi released his new album, Got Purp? Vol 2, with the Purple Ribbon All-Stars in November 2005 on Purple Ribbon Records, as Aquemeni Records was re-named after André left the company. The group is a collective of Dungeon Family artists. The first single from the album was "Kryptonite", which cracked the Billboard Hot 100 and was a hit on hip-hop radio.

Big Boi's younger brother James Patton raps under the name "Lil' Brotha", and is a member of hip-hop group Konkrete.