MIA: Andre 3000 (Or How Andre Benjamin Is Like Joe Dimaggio)

Man. I wish the title of this post referred to a newly leaked collaboration between MIA and Andre 3000. Because that would be amazing. But it doesn't. Sorry if I raised any false hopes.

No, I mean MIA very literally: Andre 3000 is missing in action. No one hates saying this more than I do. I am sure I am not the only (white) person out there who fell in love with hip hop because of Outkast. But doesn't anyone else miss the days when Andre 3000 was a dope MC? I am definitely not hating on the guy for being a trend-setting, genre-hopping experimentalist. He's a unique artist and I am glad there is someone like him out there. I just miss how good a
rapper he can be.

The good thing about being MIA, at least, is that you're not KIA. Missing implies that you are alive and, hopefully, can still be found. Have there been sightings of an MC named Andre 3000? Infrequent and all-too-brief sightings that give us hope that Andre Benjamin can still rhyme with the best of them?

A nation turns its lonely ears to you...

Lo!

UGK featuring Outkast::International Player's Anthem (Jive, 2007)
Quite possibly the jam of the summer. Andre starts things off impressively, composing a text message to his girl (don't worry, he "cc'd every girl/ that he's see-sees around town"). The style, slipping and stumbling over words unpredictably, doesn't overpower the disarming romanticism of the message. The rest of the song comes through with one of those beats that you've heard a thousand times and never fails to make you shake it. And it's also not as, um, chivalric as Andre's opener. Interested is that soulful sample or the video? Go here.

Devin the Dude featuring Snoop Dogg and Andre 3000::What A Job (Rap-A-Lot, 2007)
The song that reminds you how awesome it is to be a rapper. Just in case it you had forgotten or anything. These two songs have me convinced that Andre 3000 might be untouchable when it comes to writing mind-blowing opening lines, the kind that make me hope he returns to the rhyme game full-time.

Andre 3000::Banana Zoo (La Face, 2007)
One of the projects that has kept Andre from delivering the rhymes full-time is a cartoon for Cartoon Network, Class of 3000. If you check out the link, you'll see it's obviously for the youg'uns. And it's actually pretty good--certainly better than VeggieTales. All of this is to say that this song is goofy as all get out. Don't take it too seriously and you'll have a hard time resisting the urge to move like a monkey.


Help me in my search! What am I missing? And what's on the horizon? Can you remember the first time you heard Outkast?