Andre 3000 Thinks Rap Is Just Fine Like It Is

Ohhhhhhh! If I wasn't a diehard Andre Benjamin fan, I'd be jonin on this picture sooooo hard!!! But I won't because he's my boy and I love him! Anyways, as I've stated many times over, I'm a lover of hip hop, and so is Mr. Benjamin.

Andre 3000 recently sat down with Vibe magazine and gave his opinion of the current state of today's rap music. When asked if he thought that today's rap music was hurting the hip hop scene, his response was,

“Nothing is wrong with rap at all. And the reason why I say that is because at any given time, you got to love rap because the only thing rap has ever said to people is “we gon’ tell how it is.” That’s the only thing that they’ve ever said. They didn’t say, “We gon’ sell a million records.” They didn’t say, “We gon’ get these endorsement deals”- none of that. Rap was always “I’m just gon’ tell it like it is…So my message to all the kids doing it is do it now because this is the only chance you’re going to get to do it…because you going to start getting older and you going to start editing yourself.”

Andre 3000 did go on to say he doesn’t listen to much new music. “Ain’t nobody rapping no more, everybody singing,” he said in an interview. “I’m just going to be honest with you: I listen to old music. I don’t even listen to rap that much, and not in a Kanye West-I don’t listen to rap no more-kind of way, but I listen to what I’m working on and old, old rap.”

That is definitely what's up!

Andre 3000 Sued For $2 Mil

Atlanta rapper and clothing designer, Andre 3000, the Atlanta based Turner Broadcasting and Cartoon Network have all been named in a $2 million lawsuit claiming copyright infringement and breach of contract for the rapper's Class of 3000 cartoon show.

Timothy McGee, a postal worker, claims that Dre ripped off the the "characters, artwork, storylines and concepts" from his previous project, The Music Factory, says the Boston Herald.

"The artist known as Andre '3000' Benjamin was credited with the creation, executive production and starring role in Class of 3000," the lawsuit reads. "The similarities between the expression of Mr. McGee's work in The Music Factory and that of Class of 3000 are sufficiently detailed and pervasive."

According to McGee, he presented his idea to Cartoon Network executive Michael Lazzo back in 1997 but was rejected. (Dre's cartoon premiered in 2006.) McGee's attorney, Jerrold Neeff, says that his client is expecting compensation because of what he considers non-coincidental similarities.

"We've requested $2 million in damages thus far," Neeff told the Boston Herald. "The rest remains to be seen." At press time, reps for Dre and Cartoon Network were unavailable for comment.

Andre 3000 Launches Benjamin Bixby Clothing Line

Most definitely, Andre 3000 isn't the first rapper to design clothes, but he's definitely set himself apart from the rest with his unique clothing line for men, Benjamin Bixby.

The line can best be described as a range of 1930s-influenced American football clobber, including cashmere cardies, numbered sweaters and fitted sweat tops. Andre wanted his clothing line to not just be an overnight entertainer brand, but a brand that stuck out and was going to have longevity. He knew that he couldn't name it something so conspicuous as "Andre 3000" if he wanted to compete with the other major menswear labels out there, which is why he named it Benjamin Bixby, so that it has an aire of class about it when you hear it or speak about it.

Dre says he knew his line was something big when he saw rock n roll legend Mick Jagger taking a picture of the clothes in a window at Barney's New York. "That," says Benjamin, finger-snapping the air with unbridled satisfaction, "felt pretty good"

Andre 3000 Battles Seattle

Ya'll know I love an intellegent hoodlum; And who else would be the epitome of that other than Andre "3000" Benjamin. He's got the street smarts but the swag of the perfect gentleman. What's he been up to lately? He just finished his latest movie "The Battle in Seattle".

No it's not some spin-off of 8-Mile. But when first being handed the script by his agent, That's what Andre thought. "When I saw the title 'Battle in Seattle,' I thought it was catchy," André Benjamin told MTV last week. "I thought, 'Hey, this may be some kind of rap movie.' You know, they want some kind of battle. They want me to do the kind of '8 Mile' battle thing. 'Cause that's the roles they give to rappers anyway. So once I read it, I was like, 'Hey, OK, this is something serious.' And then, the bigger picture, it was something I didn't know about. I knew if I didn't know about it, I knew a lot of people didn't know about it. So I said, 'Let me bring this to the world ... through my people, through people in the rap world.' So at that point, I felt like I was doing a good deed bringing light to it."

The film centers on the 1999 Seattle riots, which started out as peaceful protests against the World Trade Organization and turned into full-scale chaos. Benjamin stars with Ray Liotta, Woody Harrelson and Charlize Theron, among others.

"I was kinda ashamed that I didn't know anything about it," Benjamin explained. "I just felt like me being a part of it would bring a certain audience to it. It's about the riots that took place in '99, when pretty much the whole world protested the WTO. They pulled it off. They were strategic about it. They called it a riot because there were a couple of things that went down that were unfortunate. But pretty much everything was not breaking the law, and they did it smartly.

"I play a protester by the name of Django," he added. "He's pretty much bringing light to the subject. I guess people look at protesting and feel like, of course, it's heavy. You got issues and all this kind of stuff. But my character is the person that keeps everybody on the up-and-up and alive and laughing. Even when we're locked up, I'm always making jokes and trying to keep it together."

"Battle in Seattle" is headed to theaters September 19. Andre 3000's next album is coming to stores on ... well, that's yet to be determined.