Speaking with Billboard on the day of celebrating her 72nd birthday, Soul singer and icon Aretha Franklin reported plans to work on new music with OutKast rapper Andre 3000.
During a birthday party at the New York City Ritz-Carlton Hotel that featured an appearance from Denzel Washington, Franklin opened up to Billboard about the album “Babyface is working on the tracks,” she said of the Grammy-winning singer and songwriter. “So, I’m just waiting for him to finish that so he can finish my tracks please,” Franklin said of the singer’s current tenure as a guest star in the Broadway musical “After Midnight.”
Franklin went on to cite Andre 3000 as collaborating with Babyface on those songs. “And I think Andre 2000—is it two or three? 3000 is going to be doing some of the tracks with him,” she said.
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Andre 3000 stars in an upcoming biopic on late guitarist Jimi Hendrix. Earlier this month, Danny Bramson, producer of the movie tentatively titled Jimi: All By My Side, spoke with Billboard about taking a chance on the rapper-turned-actor for the role. “We bet the house on our one and only choice, Andre Benjamin,” Bramson said. “Andre and I had ironically spoken once before—when I was producing music for Higher Learning. John Singleton had turned me on to the scene in Atlanta and the song they delivered to us predated their first album. I flew to Atlanta probably two and half years ago and sat down with Andre; I could finally thank him. The idea of anyone playing Hendrix, let alone a right-handed guitarist, was one of the greatest challenges of the project. I found a really patient teacher and put together a regimen for Andre when he came out to Los Angeles. He sat in a small studio, six hours a day, putting in dedication [to learn how to play left-handed]. His guitarmanship had to carry the idea of grace and fluidity. John and I declared that we didn’t want to have the camera cropped on his face and not the guitar. He kept working in a rehearsal room throughout the production.”
An initial look at Andre 3000 as Jimi Hendrix is available below.
RELATED: Jimi Hendrix Biopic Producer Says They “Bet The House” On Andre 3000
