Andre Benjamin, better known as Andre 3000
is once again taking on another challenge in the world of business.
First with his clothing line, next his movie career and now his own
cartoon show to boot. His new show, Class of 3000, premieres this Friday at 8p.m Eastern on the Cartoon Network. The show reflects a more freely expressed artistic side of Andre, not the same pressure that the record-selling duo of himself and Big Boi of Outkast have.
“Anything
I do from now on is extracurricular, I’m glad to be in this place. I
would hate to have to rack my brain to try and sell another 10 million
albums. That’s a bad place to be”, Andre said to Scripps News.
Class
is really his own, he helped create it, the scripts, the look and an
original song for each episode as well. He also does the voice for
Sunny Bridges, an optimistic teacher of gifted students in Atlanta.
“This (cartoon) is sort of based on my childhood, growing up in
Atlanta,” he says. “I wasn’t the coolest kid. I was quiet. I lived in
the projects and went to a predominantly white school, but it also had
Asian kids and Indians. All my friends were from all different places.”
On the show, Sunny gives up his successful recording career to come back to
his native Atlanta to be a teacher. With his guidance, his students
navigate their way through the typical pains of growing up.
“He has this magical, excited voice when he wants to help
kids,” says Andre, who isn’t married but has a son with
ex-girlfriend Erykah Badu. “He is a lot like me, (the teachers he had back then) they had an influence on me. They’d say, ‘get out and make a
change in your life.’ I was shy as a kid. I didn’t have brothers or
sisters so I never had to interact with other people,” he says. “I
lived in my own fantasy world.
“They kind of helped me break out of my shell by showing me where my talents were.””