Stray Shots: The Allure Of The Andre 3000 Feature

Once upon a time in a universe far, far away, HipHopDX used to host blogs. Through Meka, Brillyance, Aliya Ewing and others, readers got unfiltered opinions on the most current topics in and beyond Hip Hop. After a few years, a couple redesigns and the collective vision of three different Editors-In-Chief, blogs are back. Well, sort of. Since our blog section went the way of two-way pagers and physical mixtapes, Twitter, Instagram and Ustream have further accelerated the pace of current events in Hip Hop. Rappers beef with each other 140 characters at a time, entire mixtapes (and their associated artwork) can be released via Instagram, and sometimes these events require a rapid reaction.

As such, we’re reserving this space for a weekly reaction to Hip Hop’s current events. Or whatever else we deem worthy. And the “we” in question is me, Andre Grant and Ural Garrett. Collectively we serve as HipHopDX’s Features Staff. Aside from tackling stray topics, we may invite artists and other personalities in Hip Hop to join the conversation. Without further delay, here’s this week’s “Stray Shots.”

Is Andre 3000 A Top 10 All-Time Emcee?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQ8-2bPimuk

Andre: Thanksgiving found a little nugget of amazingness walking the Internet boulevard when someone got a hold of Erykah Badu and Andre 3000’s “Hello,” off her new mixtape But You Can’t Use My Phone. The song’s a reunion of lovers on one hand (Erykah and 3 stacks sired a child, Seven, and then turned into pure energy like Powder only to return to human form sometime later), and it’s just great on the other. Does anyone do that 60s/70s hippie you can hear us walking outside and birds chirping thing better than these two? So, yeah, the song is magical and just a nice end to a mixtape I haven’t properly consumed yet. The thing for me was, of course, Andre’s verse. Has anyone put the game in a chokehold on features alone more than stacks? He’s Hip Hop’s best co-star by far, and he has been for so long that you almost take it for granted. He’s a method actor out here playing Hamlet next to action stars. He brings to tracks almost always the thing that it’s missing. He seems to move in between notes and ideas effortlessly, both molding his inner melody to what’s happening on the record and jumping between styles as though he’s leapfrogging from rock-to-rock at summer camp. He raps well. He sings well. His voice fits into any space. He’s a master of the art of rap.

But this brings me to another old conversation: Is Andre 3000 really a top 10 emcee ever? With no true solo project? Is that even possible? Since Hip Hop is as much a mythic thing as an actual thing I’m going to say it is. Andre 3000 is top ten dead or alive. If the devil showed up at my wedding and demanded I choose one person in a verse off for the soul of my soon born child that person would be 3 stacks. Without a thought. Without a question. He would be the only rap lifeline you’d ever need. Technically speaking he’s a phenomenon. He’s playing out there. It’s almost like you can hear him smile through verses. And, the shy ATLien is in his own lane as a person. The reason that Key and Peele skit hit so hard is because Andre 3000 seems like he’s liable to do just about anything. Bird seeds? He might be on that and we’re not because we don’t know better, right? 3 Stacks is so sparse that he seems to know everything. He only does what he does best (which is sort of most everything) so we never have to experience him failing at something. He hasn’t dropped an iffy verse since, what, 1995?

Which brings me to my next point. “Hello” and it’s verse by Andre is the reason why every year at your New Year’s party or tragedy at precisely twelve o’clock you pray to the God of the future and you say, “Please, oh lord of things to come, please can we get an Andre 3000 solo album?” Just so that when I’m drunk with my friends and I bring up how the esoteric half of OutKast deserves to be considered top 10 they can’t say, “But he doesn’t have a solo album!” Just so we can all bow our heads in agreement as we break bread at some undeserving diner at some place that seems to have not existed before that precise moment.

And to all those that equate a 3 stacks conversation with dissing Big Boi: shut up. Big Boi is in my top 10, too.

Ural: I haven’t heard Badu and Andre 3000 sound this good together since OutKast’s Stankonia jungle boogie “Humble Mumble.” Seems like the two parents and former lovers have matured quite well as artists since then. Back then, Badu was clearly the more high profile act as she dropped Mama’s Gun literally a month afterwards. Fast forward to now, 3K would go on to have his ultimate cross-over moment years down the line through “Hey Ya” and become Hip Hop’s most prolific emcee without actually officially releasing a solo project. However, he’s delivered some of the greatest guest verses this past decade from time to time. For someone of his status within pop music, there isn’t the feeling of high-art snobbery that many in his place partake in. Andre really is the greatest lyricist to come from the south hands down. Who else could steal the show on Unk’s “Walk It Out” remix, match Frank Ocean’s vibe through “Pink Matter and stand by Houston legends UGK for “International Player’s Anthem?” Regardless of what scope someone views Hip Hop through, Andre 3 stacks can easily become apart of the discussion.

Compared to his peers, is it fair to call 3K top ten of all time? While many like to forget, OutKast records were great because of Andre and Big Boi’s collective input. Take away Daddy Fat Stacks out of the equation on Speakerboxxx/TheLoveBelow and one is left with an experimental pop album with really two or so actual rap moments. Some could call it similar to the hype around Lauryn Hill’s Miseducation album which featured sparse moments of rapping. That’s the reason why it never got nominated for Best Rap Album despite taking home Album Of The Year that night. Yes, the real reason why OutKast’s fifth album won both of those Grammy’s that night was because of Big Boi due to sheer technicality. Getting Album Of The Year that night was a joint effort with Boi holding traditionalist Hip Hop heads down and 3K wooing mainstream music lovers.

3K’s influence within Southern Hip Hop can still be seen to this day in everyone from T.I, Jeezy, Raury,  and Future (a Dungeon Family member) to Young Thug strange as it is. Is it fair to compare the Atlanta native to Biggie, Pac, Hov and the likes considering he hasn’t dropped a full body of solo work? For some, that really matters. Meanwhile, others can honestly care less. Can Andre 3K pull his own weight in releasing an album that continues his rise into pop’s stratosphere while satisfying Hip Hop heads who have stood by him since Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik? I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the dilemma he’s actually facing at the moment.   

Andre Grant is an NYC native turned L.A. transplant that has contributed to a few different properties on the web and is now the Features Editor for HipHopDX. He’s also trying to live it to the limit and love it a lot. Follow him on Twitter @drejones.
Ural Garrett is a Los Angeles-based journalist and HipHopDX’s Senior Features Writer. When not covering music, video games, films and the community at large, he’s in the kitchen baking like Anita. Follow him on Twitter @Uralg.