James Patton, Big Boi's 26-year-old brother, lives on the property and manages the 150-foot-long cinderblock kennel, keeping an eye on the 50 or so dogs. On mornings when he's not in school, their other brother, Marcus, 21, drives in from Atlanta to help clean the cages and feed and exercise the dogs. Today, there are three groups of puppies on the premises, including one of the rare "blue" pits for which the kennel has become known. "We were one of the first breeders to have a blue dog," James says. "It really took off for us. We got some big buyers, like [boxer] Roy Jones Jr. and Serena Williams."
"We've finally got to the point where there's a Pitfall bloodline," says Big Boi, cigarillo clenched between his teeth. The blues were "built" via careful linebreeding, in which dogs mate with an earlier blood relative. "Say a dog doesn't have a big head," Big Boi explains, "and it has a puppy that has a huge head?you would take that puppy back to a brother or sister of the parent, and that way you can get the same line, but the trait will be better. It takes years."
The superstar rapper, 28, has been breeding dogs since he was a kid, a hobby not always popular with his neighbors in southwest Atlanta. So, two years ago, he purchased 55 acres and "sat down with a couple of dog trainers and the Purina books for kenneling."
Polar Bear, the white pit featured in the video for OutKast's "The Whole World," peeks out from one of the 48 indoor/outdoor cages. His bark is almost hoarse, unlike the other pits'; his kennelmates yelp and lunge at visitors in a threatening manner -- until you hold your hand up to the cage and they lick your fingers. James says the pit bull's legendary angry temperament is media hype. "You got some fools out there who mistreat the dogs," he says. "I'm out there every day, never had a problem." Both Pattons get emotional even imagining dogfights. "The dogs come out so beautiful," says Big Boi. "Put 'em in a ring and they get scarred for life -- for what?"
"Chihuahuas will bite you more than a pit will bite you," says James. "Pits do sense danger," adds Big Boi, "so they know if something's wrong. But if we're cool, they're cool."
Nevertheless, pit bulls could use an image makeover. The American Kennel Club, which certifies dogs as purebred, doesn't consider the American pit bull a recognized breed, so Pitfall registers its dogs through the less snooty United Kennel Club and the American Dog Breeders Association. This allows them to sell the dogs at a premium, though they're not too expensive as pedigreed animals go?about $800 to $1,200 for a puppy. "We ain't trying to crack you over the head," says Big Boi. The adults aren't even for sale. When they retire, they sometimes go to the Pattons' friends -- though "you gotta be one bad motherfucker to get one," Big Boi says -- or end up at the rapper's house in town to "live the good life, eat table food."
Big Boi and James don't show their dogs, but some Pitfall alumni have placed in regional contests. And now that the kennel is branching out into chow chows, Neapolitan mastiffs, and Yorkshire terriers (because "women love 'em," says Big Boi), don't be surprised if a future champion comes out prancing to "The Way You Move."
The sun has set, and both Pattons head into the city -- James to OutKast's Stankonia studio, where he's working on a music project, and Big Boi to plan a solo tour. "Starting out from just a backyard, now we got an empire," James says. "It's like another family," says Big Boi, a man who knows a thing or two about bloodlines.
