Why do people like andre 3000

Sometimes you want the drums to sound really syncopated and boxy and computerized. And then you put some soul on top, funk it out that way. Introducing … the Pixar! Reality Chip. Flashy Accessories. Acquisitions Dept. Cookie banner We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, show personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our audiences come from.

By choosing I Accept , you consent to our use of cookies and other tracking technologies. Filed under: News. Share this story Share this on Facebook Share this on Twitter. Being in the studio writing songs can be both great and terrible. Or you sit down with your pen and paper trying to figure out what the first line to this song is gonna be, just slicing into that cake of a verse. You wanna show it off.

Are you always working according to a tight schedule? Recording is truly a never-ending process. You try to get all of your ideas down in some form, so when you have the time to sit down and finally try to put something together, you always have a lot to pull from. Has your working process in the studio changed a lot over the years?

Do you have a pretty set way you like to go about doing things? When we first started we were working off tape machines and things like that, so it was very time consuming to record, because you had to record to tape.

So I guess that took a lot of time out of it. Recording itself has become easier and faster thanks to technology, but a lot of the time and hard work is really spent sitting at a desk writing. Do you ever experience that? Even after recording so many songs over the years, I still never want to sound the same way I sounded on an older record. I want to always try to discover my voice in a new way, and to say things differently. You try to erase that out of your mind and start from scratch.

One of the thing I always thought was cool about you, especially in the early days of OutKast, was that you were pulling from such a wide variety of influences. Growing up, we were listening to all genres of music, and appreciating all kinds of artists. There are no boundaries, there are no lines that cannot be crossed, and there is nothing that you cannot experiment with. That gives you a lot of tools to make something special. Why be just locked into one category or genre?

I mean, it just depends on how you feel that day. You absorb all of that stuff, and eventually those influences come out in the work in all kinds of different ways.

Me and her, going at it. I was 23 or You saw the person, not Mom. I think more parents should tell kids their shit. Did you realize that early enough to apply it to your parenting? This is a more recent thought? Yeah, when I was around 35, my mom pulled me to the side in the kitchen. I was dating this drug-dealer guy, and he sold cocaine, and we would do cocaine, and that was like a normal thing. And the person that she ended up marrying was the guy that used to keep me when she would go do crack.

Did she blurt it out because it had been gnawing at her? Yeah, but I think it was more that I triggered it, because at that time, I was doing drugs. I think she was trying to tell me the story to help me. I saw a tennis racket in the corner of your practice space. I was mimicking her.

After she told me that, I looked at her like a god. So she was strong enough to break that and change over. So I looked at her like, Wow. You know people still think of you as sober and vegan, right? Yeah, my life has changed a lot. After our first album, we were going hard, out on the road, doing drugs, partaking in every woman, and I started to see myself deteriorate.

So I went that way and tried it. My homie Cee-Lo, from Goodie Mob, he has this joke. I mean, we out here fucking these bitches. The truth is, you have some pretty raw sex raps. I try to find the goodness in the world and like, you know, I mean, even Jesus—Jesus had to get a little bit, you know what I mean?

So of all the music projects you started since The Love Below, what remains? When I pass away, people will find hours and hours of files. Hard drives? Yeah, hard drives and shit. Me playing piano. Me playing a little sax. I was trying to find out: What can I be excited about?

Because I never was, to me, a great producer or a great writer or a great rapper. I always felt that I was less than everybody else, so I fought harder. My only gauge to know when something was good was how I felt it. Like, Oh, man, this is dope. Or, This is new. So I got to a place where nothing excited me. I kept trying and pushing and pushing. I got to a place where I was just kinda in a loop. My son would see me go through all these phases.

He had this band idea. And this other idea. And I never followed through with any of it. So when my parents passed away and he went off to college, it was like, Man, what am I gonna do? So I felt like it was time to come and study or replenish myself. And they have music. So I saw myself coming to study an instrument, coming to learn Spanish and probably try stage. Which one? An instrument. Like, I never totally dedicated myself to anything. Did you know, coming here, that you were going to have to face people on the street?