André “André 3000” Benjamin and Antwan “Big Boi” Patton of OutKast are master genre jugglers. On albums like Stankonia and Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, the studio geniuses move fluidly between hip hop, soul, funk, and rock – an eclectic groove that has earned them Grammys, platinum records, and critical raves. But their next disc is their most ambitious synthesis yet. Hitting the streets this summer, IdleWild is the soundtrack to a film of the same name that’s set in 1930s rural Georgia and stars the dynamic duo. To capture the right sound, the artists – who were teenagers in Atlanta when their first album came out in 1994 – blended their modern sensibilities with Depression-era musical styles. Wired spoke to Benjamin about kicking it old-school. Really old-school.
– Paul Barman
André 3000 Talks André 1935 WIRED: What were some of the influences on your new album?
BENJAMIN: Blues, jazz, and big band. Blues was heavy on my mind. I’m lovin’ Son House, and Howlin’ Wolf is one of my favorites. Actually, one of my first rap names was Black Wolf. Big Boi was Black Dog and I was Black Wolf.
Can you describe how you updated the blues?
Back then it was more guitar driven. People from my generation, we need a beat, something forceful. But I wanted to keep it simple, because the rawest blues is simple, and that’s what I dig about it. So on my track “Don’t Worry ’Bout Me,” it’s just drums, guitar, and a backward harmonica.
That’s about as stripped-down as you can get these days.
A lot of songs today are overproduced. I’m hearing too many layers of sound. People’s attention spans are getting shorter and shorter. Especially with so many things to pay attention to – iPods, videogames, magazines, reality shows – and you don’t have a lot of time to put on a record and concentrate on every sound.
Does the more direct sound make for a more direct message?
A kid of 17 right now might not give a shit about the blues. But you get on top of it and be truthful with it, and they’ll want to dig deeper and check out Son House. Just like when Dr. Dre sampled Funkadelic – people go check out the original and be like, “Ooh, this is where that came from!” It’s research.
What’s the ratio of live to computer-generated instrumentation on IdleWild?
Fifty-fifty. We don’t do a lot of sampling, though. I like to hear variation – even if musicians are just repeating a riff over and over, it feels different than actually looping a sound.
What does it take to blend the live with the CG so that it’s seamless?
That I don’t know. Actually, sometimes you want the computer to be the computer and the live to be the live, because they’re serving two different purposes. We’ve grown up on beat machines; live drums may not be strong enough for our appetites. Sometimes you want the drums to sound really syncopated and boxy and computerized. And then you put some soul on top, funk it out that way. It’s like a good marriage.
OutKast’s André Benjamin (left) and Antwan Patton meld groove with blues to create a fresh Depression-era soundtrack for IdleWild.
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OutKast Goes Way Back
