If you’re an avid reader of StraightFromTheA, you may recall THIS post where I explained to you why Andre 3000 wasn’t in the Beyonce “Party” video.?? You may also recall a few weeks ago, where I tried to clear up those vicious rumors that Dre had “killed” Outkast…
[READ: Outkast Ain’t DEAD! The Real Deal… ]
In a recent interview with The Fader, Dre discusses his “I’m the Sh*t” rant in the 13 minute ‘DoYaThang’ extended single and his support of Chris Brown.? He also reiterates what I wrote about why we won’t see him in any music videos and the future of Outkast.
Check out the interview below…
On his involvement in “DoYaThang” – the James Murphy assisted Gorillaz single and how is “I’m the Sh*t” rant in the extended version of the song came about…
It?s a funny thing, like the first half of the song that?s being played now on the internet, we tackled that part of the song in one day. I think we?d just come from lunch and we were just sitting around. Damon [Albarn] actually said that he was riding in the street on his bike and he ran into a really famous producer, and this famous producer, you know, he?s well known around town about his great great great ideas. So it?s just funny because Damon asked this producer, you know, ?How?s it going today man?? And his reply was kind of like, Man, everything in my world is perfect. Like, I can do no wrong. Like a real kind of?not conceited, but an, Everything-I-do-is-excellent answer. And so I was like, Wow, he sound like he must be the shit. We started playing and I was messing around, so those vocals that you hear on the end?I was actually in the control room on the microphone. I wasn?t even in the vocal booth. I was running around the studio and I was sweating and running and we were playing. You can actually hear me. [AUDIO]
Later, I say, ?I run away from the mic.? I was actually running away from the mic and running back to the mic. It was just really a freestyle thing. It was fun, so we just kept it. We knew it was tastefully vulgar, but we thought it was appropriate, and of course we couldn?t release it under the Converse banner because it was tastefully vulgar, but I thought it was just a good moment. And that?s what music is about, capturing those moments.
On his decision to not appear in music videos…
So, you know, when I would talk to these artists and we?d agree that we?d do these songs, we would all be in agreement that it was just vocals. There was no visual or anything. Every artist I work with from Beyonce, from Young Jeezy and Jay-Z, from BoB, it was all understood before my first rhyme was written that there was going to be no videos. And I always felt like?you know, I haven?t been in even in a video with Big Boi?it?s kind of disrespectful of me if I can just jump in a video with a new artist and I haven?t even jumped in the video with my own partner.
So I always said, I?m not going to fully jump back into it until I really do it. I?m not going to play around. If it?s not my project or an Outkast thing, or you know, if I?m supporting Big Boi, then it just didn?t make sense for me. It just didn?t feel right doing it.
So it?s a loyalty to myself and trying to make sure I really wanted to be in the business again.
On his decision to work with Chris Brown:
Of course I love the beat, but at that time a lot of people were on Chris Brown as a human being. And I know he?d gone through his troubles or whatever and I just was like?I just wanted to stand by him and be like, Hey, you know, you can?t really charge a man forever and condemn a man forever. So it?s really just like a support thing. I thought it was a cool thing to do.
No, there are not any plans right now. We?re not on the roster or on a schedule with a label to put out an Outkast album. I can?t say if or when we will, but I?m going to be in Outkast forever in some kind of way . . . There?s no plans for an Outkast album right now. Next year will be 20 years as Outkast, which is?I?m still amazed at it.
I?m happy that we?ve been around that long. Happy that we have people that still care about Outkast . . . If we do another Outkast album one day, I would be super happy. Because I?ll know that the vibe is right, and we?ll put our all into it. But if we never do another Outkast album, you know, I won?t be sad because we?ve been blessed. We?ve been around.
I hate to say ‘I told you so’ but I did… HERE and HERE!