André 3000 almost wasn’t featured on a certain OutKast classic.
In an interview with SPIN, Sleepy Brown — one-half of the production duo Organized Noize who collaborated with the hip-hop group over the years — revealed that the flutist (whose legal name is André Benjamin), 49, could have been absent on the band’s 2000 hit “So Fresh, So Clean.”
“The funny thing is André didn’t really like it at first,” Brown (whose real name is Patrick Brown), 54, told the publication. “André didn’t like that record. It wasn’t like he didn’t think it was good — it just wasn’t matching where he was. We really just did it for Big.”
He added: “We knew André was moving to something else, but we knew on that album it needed that hood theme. When Big heard it, he loved it. We thought Dre was going to be happy with it at first, but he really wasn’t.”
But when bass player Preston Crump added his flourishes to the song, André changed his mind.
“When Dre heard that, he got excited and came up with ‘the coolest motherfunkers on the planet’ part,” Brown explained. “He was following that line he heard. Thanks to Preston, that’s the reason why Dre even got on that record.”
The producer/songwriter also detailed the origin story behind “So Fresh, So Clean,” crediting his Organize Noize partner Rico Wade — who died last year at the age of 52 — with writing the track’s hook.
“I actually came up with the idea and went to the Dungeon, played a little piano line for Rico,” Brown said. “He was really slick with words and stuff, so instead of me writing it, I asked him to write it. And I was like, ‘I’m just going to put down a melody of it.’
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In December 2024, the “Ms. Jackson” singer told Rolling Stone that new music from him and Big Boi, 49, is “further away” than it’s “ever been” from happening.
“I’ll say maybe 10, 15 years ago, in my mind, I thought an OutKast album would happen. I don’t know the future, but I can say that we’re further away from it than we’ve ever been,” André said.
“I think it’s a chemistry thing. We have to be wanting to do it. It’s hard for me to make a rap, period, you know? And sometimes I’m in the belief of ‘Let things be,'” he added.
André 3000 and Big Boi formed OutKast in 1992. They’ve released six albums and earned six Grammy Awards throughout their career.
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