Andre Lauren Benjamin, or Andre 3000, is a rapper and actor from the United States of America. The American rapper got his first "portion" of popularity, being part of the Outkast duo along with Big Boi.
To be imbued not only with music, but also with Andre's acting, it is enough to watch the films: "Shield", "Be cool!", "Revolver", "Semi-professional", "Blood for blood".
In addition to film and music, André Lauren Benjamin is a business owner and animal rights activist. In 2008, he first launched his clothing line, which received the "modest" name Benjamin Bixby.
In 2013, Complex included Benjamin in their list of the top 10 rappers of the 2000s, and two years later, Billboard included the artist in their list of the 10 greatest rappers of all time.
Childhood and youth of Andre Lauren Benjamin
So, Andre Lauren Benjamin was born in 1975 in Atlanta (Georgia). Andre's childhood and youth were bright and eventful. He was constantly in the spotlight, met interesting people and was not too lazy to study well at school.
While in high school, André took violin lessons. In one of his interviews, Benjamin said that his mother made a lot of efforts so that he would grow up to be a smart and intelligent person.
Mom's efforts can be understood, since she independently raised little Andre Lauren Benjamin. The father left the family when the boy was very young.
Building an OutKast Team
Acquaintance with music also began early. Already in 1991, Benjamin, together with his friend Antwan Paton, created a rapper duet, which was called OutKast.
After the rappers graduated from high school, Outkast signed to La Face in Atlanta. Actually, the debut album Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik was recorded there in 1994.
The track Player's Ball, which was included in the record, determined the further fate of young rappers. By the end of 1994, the compilation went platinum and Outkast was named the best new rap group of 1995 at The Source.
Soon hip-hop fans could enjoy the albums ATLiens (1996) and Aquemini (1998). The guys never got tired of experimenting. In their tracks, elements of trip-hop, soul and jungle were clearly audible. Outkast's compositions again received commercial and critical acclaim.
The album ATLiens turned out to be interesting. The rappers decided to transform into aliens. Andre's lyrics were filled with their own surreal space-age flavor.
Interestingly, during the release of the album, Benjamin learned to play the guitar, became interested in painting, and also fell in love with Erica Bada.
After recording the fourth studio album Stankonia, which was officially released in 2000, Benjamin began to introduce himself under the creative pseudonym André 3000.
The track "Jackson" became the top composition of this record. The composition took the honorable 1st position on the Billboard Hot 100.
In total, the duo has released 6 studio albums. The creativity of rappers was in demand, and no one would have guessed that the Outkast team would soon cease to exist.
In 2006, the duo broke up. In 2014, the rappers united again to celebrate the second major anniversary - 20 years since the creation of the group. The group has visited more than 40 music festivals. Fans were delighted with the duo's performances.
Solo career Andre 3000
After a short break, Benjamin returned to the stage. This significant event took place in 2007. His entry into the "society" began with remixes. We are talking about the compositions: Walk It Out (Unk), Throw Some D's (Rich Boy) and You (Lloyd).
In addition, the rapper's voice could be heard on such songs as: 30 Something (Jay-Z), International Players Anthem (UGK), Whata Job (Devin the Dude), Everybody (Fonzworth Bentley), Royal Flush (Big Boi and Raekwon ), BEBRAVE (Q-Tip) [12], and Green Light (John Legend).
In 2010, it became known that Benjamin was working on recording his first solo album. However, Andre decided to keep the official release date of the collection a secret.
In 2013, after Andre was seen in the recording studio with producer Mike Will Made It, it became known that he would release a solo album in 2014. The very next day there were bright headlines about the release of the collection.
However, the representative of Andre 3000 disappointed everyone - he did not give official confirmation that the debut album would be released this year. In the same year, the rapper appeared on the second compilation of the Honest group in the song Benz Friendz (Whatchutola).
Participation in the recording of the Hello mixtape
In 2015, Benjamin took part in the recording of Hello from Erica Badu's mixtape But You Caint Use My Phone. A year later, he appeared on Kanye West's recording of 30 Hours from his compilation The Life of Pablo.
In the same 2015, he appeared at a press conference, where he said that he had already started recording his first solo album.
However, in 2016 the collection was not released. But Benjamin delighted fans with joint tracks with popular American rappers.
In 2018 alone, André 3000 posted several new works on SoundCloud. We are talking about the track Me & My (To Bury Your Parents) and the 17-minute instrumental composition Look Ma No Hands.
André 3000 co-wrote and performed on Come Home, the first track from Anderson Pak's album Ventura, which was officially made available for download in 2019.
A lot of collaborations - and the lack of a coherent collection of new compositions. The fans were disappointed.
In 2020, Andre 3000 never released a solo album. The Love Below compilation aside, the record was recorded as one half of the double album Outkast Speakerboxxx / The Love Below.
