Thinking New

This conversation between Rick Rubin and Andre 3000 is really, really good, and should be required listening for anyone that creates for a living, or wishes they did. Or anyone that struggles with their self confidence. Or really, just anyone.

I remember being blown away by that crazy masterpiece Speakerboxxx / The Love Below, and hearing “Hey Ya!” pretty much everywhere for all of 2003 and 2004. Big Boi and Andre 3000 were blazing new sonic trails, transporting music to a new galaxy. After a period of long, increasigly massive success, Outkast put out a final album, then sort of faded away.

It was cool to see “Three Stacks” appear on the always excellent Broken Record, where he and Dr. Rubin cover a wide range of interesting topics. Some of my favorite moments:

They talk about evolving as musicians, Radiohead’s divisive Kid A, and that you “don’t have to be new to make new.” I love Rubin’s reference to how artists can get stuck making the same thing, and the misconception that if you’re not new, the work can’t be new. It is possible, after all, to be not new (some call it old), but to think new.

Andre talks about how he still goes to the laundromat. He likes being in the real world, having regular, everyday experiences — and seems like a guy that has learned to appreciate those experiences, which in some ways is the key to happiness. There is no shortage of the everyday.

In disscussing fashion, he talks about how he always wanted to look like someone from another planet. That was the musical world that interested him as a kid, and his reference to the video for “Prototype” being inspired by Sun Ra’s 1974 film Space is the Place sent me searching for the vintage cinematic gem, which can be viewed in all its crazy entirety here.