André 3000: An Exclusive Interview
He called us this morning to talk about making protest t-shirts, the renewed power of marches, life during the pandemic, and more
Welcome to Blackbird Spyplane.
Our interviews with Nathan Fielder, André 3000, 100 gecs, Danielle Haim, Mac DeMarco, Matty Matheson, Phoebe Bridgers, Seth Rogen, Emily Bode, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Michael Stipe, Sandy Liang, Tyler, The Creator, Maya Hawke, King Krule, John C. Reilly, Jerry Seinfeld, Clairo, Conner O’Malley, Rashida Jones, Steven Yeun and more are here.
André 3000 has been making beautiful art since he was a kid — most prominently as one-half of OutKast, the epochal hip-hop duo he formed in Atlanta with his high school friend Big Boi. Yesterday, André released a limited-edition collection of t-shirts, on sale only through tomorrow, 100% of the proceeds from which will go to benefit the Movement for Black Lives.
The shirts are emblazoned with slogans that trace back to the summer of 2014 — in the aftermath of the police killings of Michael Brown and Eric Garner — when André made 47 custom jumpsuits, emblazoned with such phrases, that he wore onstage during an OutKast reunion tour.
This morning André called up Blackbird Spyplane to talk to us about the new shirts, life under quarantine, finding hope in the wave of George Floyd protests spreading across the world — and also feeling rage, sadness and confusion, too: “It’s this perfect, ugly, nasty, beautiful feeling that I can’t describe,” he says. “But it’s so necessary.”
Blackbird Spyplane: Where are you right now?
André 3000: “I’m in New York — I came here for a couple days but I’ve been mainly stationed in Venice Beach during this coronavirus thing.”
Blackbird Spyplane: You included a statement with the new t-shirts: “Something very important is happening all over the world and it is happening to all of us. How does it make you feel?” So let me ask you, What’s happening all over the world, as you see it, and how does it make you feel?