In an interview with The Fader, Andre 3000 discussed a wide variety of hot topics ranging from the prospects of a new OutKast album, his thoughts on Chris Brown‘s plight, and feeling inspired by Drake. The ‘Stankonia’ rapper had some very interesting words to say about the Canadian born actor-turned-rapper and his placement in hip-hop’s hierarchy.
Also, what was the real reason behind novice rapper J. Cole taking his place in the music video for Bouncy‘s ‘Party’?
Find out below in excerpts from his tea spilling interview after the jump and sound-off below.
On why he wanted to appear on Chris Brown’s remix to “Deuces”: “Of course I love the beat, but at that time a lot of people were on Chris Brown as a human being. And I know he’d gone through his troubles or whatever and I just was like—I just wanted to stand by him and be like, Hey, you know, you can’t really charge a man forever and condemn a man forever. So it’s really just like a support thing. I thought it was a cool thing to do.”
On being inspired by newcomers like Drake: “Now I talk to Drake, and I know he had to be like 10 when he was listening to what we were doing. You just never know who’s listening until you hear a connection. I didn’t even know Drake dug my music, I just liked him as a rapper because I felt he had a balance. I didn’t even know that he grew up listening to me. But it’s cool to know that it’s a real lineage thing. I’m happy to see Kanye and Wayne and Drake and all these new artists. They inspire me in a way because they reach back and they say, ‘Hey, we want to get you on these songs.’”
On hip-hop’s new generation: “None of us old guys have new flows. None of us. The young guys have the new flows. The only thing that we have is years of experience. That’s all we have.”
Does writing come easy to you now? “I write all the time. Like I write down thoughts that I think would be interesting or things that are kind of just concerning me at the time. Sometimes I write them on a napkin, sometimes I type them in my phone. And when it comes time to do music, I go through and see what thoughts work for this song.”
Are you writing them in rhyme form? Or are they notes? “Both. Sometimes they’re in rhyme and sentence, and sometimes they’re just a thought. Sometimes it’s a melody. With phones now they have the recorder on it, so I can sing melodies or I can say lyrics right into my phone.”
Any time you do a guest verse its treated like audio gold. Does that put pressure on you? “I hate to be in that place, but it’s a blessing and a curse because I love to be asked to do these things. Now people judge every word so strongly. Even if it’s just an okay verse, they’ll say this and that. I hate when that happens. I guess the novelty of it is more exciting than what’s actually there.”
Read the full interview HERE.
nice thing to say. Especially when all kinds of has-beens seem to want to destroy this kid for doing what he does well.
His s** appeal is uncanny. He’s alot younger than i thought, only 35. I guess it feels like that with people who have bedn in d game from an early onset. I found it incredible when i learnt of Mariah Carey n Celine Dion’s age too lol
Oh n yea Drake could do with a break lol. Ppl cant take, 9 no 1s on d RnB charts already
why he didnt appear in the party vid?
If you read the full interview, which is on the second page, he says this:
You haven’t really appeared in any music videos or performed live in awhile:
Yeah. Well, when you’re at this age you go through this thing. Well, me personally—I go through this…do I still wanna do it? I’ve done it for years, since I was like 17, 18 years old. You try to find what you love to do, which I’m doing now. I never really knew if I wanted to step back into the arena, if I wanted to really be in the business. When I would get these calls from artists, I felt great about it. At the same time, I never wanted to tease people in a way where I’d be in the video and then they won’t see me for another ten years or anything. So, you know, when I would talk to these artists and we’d agree that we’d do these songs, we would all be in agreement that it was just vocals. There was no visual or anything. Every artist I work with from Beyonce, from Young Jeezy and Jay-Z, from BoB, it was all understood before my first rhyme was written that there was going to be no videos. And I always felt like—you know, I haven’t been in even in a video with Big Boi—it’s kind of disrespectful of me if I can just jump in a video with a new artist and I haven’t even jumped in the video with my own partner. So I always said, I’m not going to fully jump back into it until I really do it. I’m not going to play around. If it’s not my project or an Outkast thing, or you know, if I’m supporting Big Boi, then it just didn’t make sense for me. It just didn’t feel right doing it. So it’s a loyalty to myself and trying to make sure I really wanted to be in the business again.
Though I would have LOVED for Andre to be in the Party video and it would have just been the icing on the already indulging cake that it was, I can totally respect his take on the situation and why he wasnt in the video. And for that, i love and respect him much more and it makes me appreciate the song more. And now i see why he also wasnt in the Lloyd video. All of that talk about his label not allowing him to this and that, i dont know if thats completely the truth. So Ive concluded, dont listen to the hype unless you hear it straight from the horse’s mouth!
Andre 3000…another man who can do no wrong in my eyes. His scrumptious self. “I told Andre he can get it”
Always love andre 3000. Seems like a nice person. He needs to realize that hip hop needs him. Cause some of these rappers ain’t saying nothing. I hope to hear someting from him or outkast in the future cause 35 is not old. I really don’t know why they think that. Your mind and perception of life is just changing that’s all. As long as you are living and breathing you always have something to say.
JP
March 5, 2012 at 8:40 pm
Andre 3000…another man who can do no wrong in my eyes. His scrumptious self. “I told Andre he can get it”
——
Lol! Co- sign !! *SWV voice* 🙂