André 3000 has shared his thoughts on the feud between Kendrick and Drake, saying the whole saga left him “a little sad.”
The OutKast legend, who took an artistic turn to the left with her instrumental jazz flute album “New Blue Sun” last year, discussed the rap feud of the year in a recent interview with Crack.
“I got a little sad at some point,” he explained. “In the early rap battles, kids rapped against each other in the park. But today, it’s not just people who rap. There are people with 100 employees. They have livelihoods, empires, companies, contracts – everything can be at stake. If you have nothing to lose, then do it. But if I’ve already done it, I’m not sure if it’s even worth it anymore.”
André is not the first hip-hop star to voice his suspicions about the altercation – Questlove called it “wrestling-level mudslinging and taking down by any means necessary”, and Jay Electronica and Vince Staples have also weighed in.
Last month, André also shared his thoughts on the current generation of rappers, claiming that many of them “sound the same.”
Of OutKast’s time in the Dungeon Family – led by Organized Noize legend Rico Wade, who died of heart failure in April this year – he said that today’s rap stars “don’t have time to cultivate.”
“If we had performed as OutKast when we thought we were ready, we wouldn’t be here today because we sounded like everyone else. We sounded like the people we were listening to,” he theorized.
“I don’t think artists have time to evolve, that’s why a lot of artists sound the same,” he continued. “You can jump on the mic quickly – which is great because you’re so immediate – but you don’t have time to refine yourself.”
In the same interview, he clarified what he meant by saying that it felt “inauthentic” to him to return to rapping in favor 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 thing. I’m not trying to maintain what I did before. Obviously I have things to say now, but if I can’t say them in a fresh, innovative way, like I’m sticking to an old flow that I used to do, that’s not enough for me.”
André will play two intimate shows at London’s Jazz Cafe on August 16 – a matinee and an evening show – before appearing at All Points East the following day. For more information on the shows, titled ‘New Blue Sun Live In Concert’, click here.
These shows come before a North American tour later in the year. All dates can be found here and any remaining tickets can be found here.
