Chris Brown has his share of established naysayers, but his loyal fans and Rihanna have his back. And now Andre 3000 goes on record to affirm his support for the “Turn Up The Music” singer-performer.
Andre 3000, one-half of the critically acclaimed rap group Outkast, chopped it up with “The Fader” on a little bit of everything from being inspired by rapper Drake to his decision with jumping on Chris Brown’s hot break-up anthem song “Deuces.”
“Of course I love the beat, but at that time a lot of people were on Chris Brown as a human being,” 3000 said of Brown’s personal struggles following the 2009 assault on then-girlfriend pop star Rihanna. “And I know he’d gone through his troubles or whatever and I just was like, I just want 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.”
Andre has been collaborating a lot lately, and not just to those who could use the image support from someone of his caliber. Drake’s remix “The Real Her” was accompanied with Andre’s smooth, fly lyrics.
“Now I talk to Drake, and I know he had to be like 10 when he was listening to what we were doing. You just never know who’s listening until you hear a connection,” said the veteran wordsmith who made his debut in 1994 with the OutKast classic “Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik.” I didn’t even know Drake dug my music, I just liked him as a rapper because I felt he had a balance. I didn’t even know that he grew up listening to me. But it’s cool to know that it’s a real lineage thing. I’m happy to see Kanye and Wayne and Drake and all these new artists. They inspire me in a way because they reach back and they say, ‘Hey, we want to get you on these songs.’”
Can fans expect another Outkast album?
“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. I can’t really say Outkast is over so it always trips me out when these things get on the internet, and [people] go, Andre said there’s going to be no more Outkast. And then me and Big Boi get on the phone like, Oh, that’s unfortunate that they said that kind of thing.”
You can catch more of the exclusive one-on-one at Fader.com
