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André 3000 has shared his thoughts on the Kendrick-Drake beef, saying the whole saga left him feeling “a little sad”.
The OutKast legend, who last year took an artistic left turn with his instrumental jazz flute album ‘New Blue Sun’, discussed the rap feud of the year in a recent interview with Crack.
“I got a little sad, at a certain point,” he explained. “In early rap battles, you had kids in the park rapping against each other. But it’s not just people rapping now. You got people with 100 employees. You have livelihoods, empires, companies, deals — all of it can be jeopardized. If you don’t have anything to lose, sure, go for it. But if I already made it, I’m not sure it’s even worth it anymore.”
André is not the first hip-hop luminary to express their suspicions about the beef – Questlove called it “wrestling match level mudslinging and takedown by any means necessary”, while Jay Electronica and Vince Staples have also waded in.
Last month, André also shared his thoughts on the current generation of rappers, arguing that a lot of them “sound the same”.
Speaking about OutKast‘s time in the Dungeon Family – led by the late Organized Noize legend Rico Wade who died this April from heart failure –he said that today’s rap stars don’t “have time to cultivate themselves”.
“If we were to come out as OutKast when we thought we were ready, we wouldn’t be around today ’cause we sounded like everybody else. We sounded like who we were listening to,” he theorised.
“Now, I don’t think artists have time to cultivate themselves so a lot of artists sound the same,” he continued. “You can quickly jump on a microphone — it’s awesome because you’re getting an immediacy, but you don’t get time to hone who you are.”
In the same interview, he clarified what he meant by saying it felt “inauthentic” for him to return to rapping in favour of his new jazz direction.
“If it’s in you, you should rap until you die,” he explained. “The way I do it, I’m always trying to look for the next. I’m not trying to uphold what I’ve done before. Of course, I have things to say now but if I can’t say them in a fresh innovative way, like I’m hanging on to an old flow that I used to do, it’s not enough for me.”
André is set to play two intimate shows at London’s Jazz Cafe on August 16 – a matinee and and evening show – ahead of his slot at All Points East the following day. See here for more information on the shows, dubbed ‘New Blue Sun Live In Concert’.
Those shows come ahead of a North American tour later in the year. See all those dates here and find any remaining tickets here.