Fans call for Atlanta’s hip-hop heroes to be added to the largest bas-relief in the world, which depicts Confederate leaders

Visitors to Georgia might sometimes feel a bit surprised at what they see a little under 20 miles east of Atlanta – a 500m-high isolated rock dome rising from the plain, on to the north face of which is carved the largest bas-relief in the world. Depicted in rock are the Confederate leaders Jefferson Davis, Robert E Lee and Thomas J “Stonewall” Jackson – in a 120m-high depiction that covers three acres.

Now hip-hop fans have started a petition to change the face of Stone Mountain by adding Outkast to the memorial, with Big Boi and Andre 3000 – riding in a Cadillac – added to the three Confederate leaders on horseback. When it reaches 2,000 signatures, the petition will be delivered to the Georgia State House, the Georgia Senate and Governor Nathan Deal.

“By no means do we wish to erase or destroy the current carving, which, regardless of its context, is an impressive and historic work of art,” states the the MoveOn.com petition. “We simply wish to add new carvings, of Atlanta hip-hop duo Outkast, to the mountainside. There’s plenty of room.”

Big Boi has backed the petition, retweeting a story about it with an approving emoji.

Big Boi (@BigBoi) 👍RT @ajc: How ‘bout it @bigboi? Two dope boys in a Cadillac — on the side of Stone Mountain? http://t.co/seiEZGsZcs pic.twitter.com/G8srJkbu5S

Stone Mountain is a hugely popular attraction in Georgia, but it is, unsurprisingly, hugely controversial. The second iteration of the Ku Klux Klan was founded there in 1915, and when fundraising for the memorial began in 1923, the mountain’s then owners granted the Klan a perpetual right to hold celebrations there. The carving was not completed until 1970.

Earlier this week, the NAACP called for the removal of the giant carving from the face of the mountain. “It is time for Georgia and other Southern states to end the glorification of slavery and white supremacy paid for and maintained with the taxes of all its citizens,” the Atlanta chapter of the NAACP said.

In other pop petition news, more than 7,500 people have signed a petition demanding David Guetta stop using live horses in his Ibiza show. The petition states: “The horse has to enter the big Pacha hall at 4am in the morning, where a huge crowd of people, drunken and drugged, screaming and sweating, are celebrating their party night. The noise and smell is unbearable for most people, but the more for an animal.”

The petition follows the condemnation of Guetta by Deadmau5 on Twitter earlier this week.

deadmau5 (@deadmau5) for real... horses belong on a farm, not in a shitty overpriced nightclub to be subjected to a shitty overpaid DJ. @pacha

Earlier this year, one of the longest running legends about horses in nightclubs was cleared up, when Bianca Jagger wrote to the Financial Times explaining that she did not ride a horse into Studio 54 in New York on 2 May 1977, but merely mounted one that happened to be there already. “No doubt you will agree with me that it is one thing to, on the spur of the moment, to get on a horse in a nightclub, but it is quite another to ride in on one. As an environmentalist and an animal rights defender I find the insinuation that I would ride a horse into a nightclub offensive,” she wrote. “I hope that you can understand the difference between ‘coming in’ on a horse and getting on one.”