Andre 3000 Mixes It Up w/ Ali Shaheed Muhammad & Frannie Kelley On NPR's 'Microphone Check'

Andre Benjamin AKA Andre 3000 AKA whatever you feel like calling him at this point (as you'll hear, he's grown quite indifferent to the moniker game) took to NPR's hallmark hip-hop exposition Microphone Check to chop it up with BK's own Ali Shaheed Muhammad and public radio's illest boom-bap curator Frannie Kelley. 3 Stacks kept things supremely candid, revealing that his forthcoming collaboration with Hitsville's Queen Aretha Franklin will be decked-out in purple, covering Prince's sweat-soaked ballad "Nothing Compares 2 U." You read that correctly. Aretha Franklin and Andre 3000 are going to be putting their touch on one of Paisley Park's finest concoctions.

The trio of encyclopedic music minds went on to discuss Atlanta's full-bloom sonic scene, as Outkastwill be gracing the city with and epic homecoming festival this coming weekend. He speaks to how he and his partner in crime Big Boihad been so influenced by A Tribe Called Quest in their early years, even going so far as to imitate their NY draw, but always making sure to have the ATL firmly strapped to their back. Dre shouts out Hieroglyphics and Das FX as the foundational Atlanta crews westward roots, keeping an ear out for unconventional flows and time signatures. They go on to discuss his own cadence, when the transition into production happened for him, how to not solely be defined by your hometown, his role as Jimi Hendrix in the upcoming biopic All Is By My Side and so much more. Catch Andre 3000 on NPR's Microphone Check below to get all these words of wisdom.