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André 3000 Breaks Down How He Chooses Which Songs To Record Guest Verses

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Anytime there’s a guest verse from André 3000, it becomes an event in hip-hop instantly. He’s made a significant portion of his argument for the GOAT off of features alone. The “Throw Some D’s” remix, “Pink Matter” by Frank Ocean, “Life Of The Party” with Kanye West, the big “Walk It Out” remix verse, “Sixteen” with Rick Ross, the options are seemingly endless.

However, it’s not like André is giving out verses like it’s nothing. In fact, he’s always been extremely picky with what he gives his creative energy towards in hip-hop. The timing has to be right, he has to have something to say. He’s just not wired to craft a verse out of thin air. Nowadays, André 3000 rather not rap at all because it doesn’t feel right. “Sometimes it feels inauthentic for me to rap, because I don’t have anything to talk about in that way,” he said back in 2025. “I’m 48 years old. Not to say that age is a thing that dictates what you rap about, but in a way, it does.”

So how does André choose which song is right for him? How does his spirit call to him for a verse? In a 2012 interview with The Fader, he revealed how he decides who to make a verse for and when it makes sense.

André 3000 Explains His Thought Process Behind Picking Songs

“Most of the time it has to be the music. The music has to kinda move me in some kind of way. Sometimes it’s emotionally, sometimes it’s just being there supporting another person,” André explained. “Even the Chris Brown [‘Deuces’] remix—of course I love the beat, but at that time a lot of people were on Chris Brown as a human being. And I know he’d gone through his troubles or whatever and I just was like—I just wanted to stand by him and be like, Hey, you know, you can’t really charge a man forever and condemn a man forever. So it’s really just like a support thing. I thought it was a cool thing to do.”

The interviewer is particularly struck by the fact that when André 3000 appears on a remix, it feels like a statement. His verses aren’t “empty preaching” as they describe it. Instead, it tends to strike something meaningful to the listener during a particular period of time. The Outkast legend agreed, admitting that it’s mostly just a matter of exercising his penmanship and his craft as a rapper. “I definitely don’t want to be preaching but sometimes—it’s all thoughts, it’s a whole thought. That’s all it is, is thoughts,” André 3000 said.

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