A Andre "3000" Benjamin, 28, loves to drive. Drive and listen to music. Drive and make music. He says sometimes the melodies just come to him when he drives. He'll hum the melodies into a little tape recorder while looking out at the cars racing before him. Then he'll go home and be amazed by the talents of the subconscious mind. ("'Ms. Jackson' was actually an acoustic guitar song that I was doing at home," he says. "Then I just converted it over into something people could understand a little bit more.") There's a guitar stretched across the backseat of Andre's metallic blue Range Rover on this day. The way it's positioned, you can tell that he really plays it a lot. His getup is fairly straight compared to what folks have come to expect from him: no platinum wig, no bullet-festooned belt. He's sporting a Polo shirt, a pair of those brown hiking boots with the fat red laces, and high-water jeans with permanent creases, topped off by a healthy cotton-candy 'fro.
Today, he's cruising up and down Atlanta's Interstate 285, playing tunes from OutKast's latest CD. And he's talking about feelings, and colors. B Big Boi is the rapper with the tightly rolled cigar, sitting in his office, surrounded by a purple haze. There's loud knocking on his door. His phone and two-way pager ring nonstop. Seems like there's never any real peace, but the man is focused. "Motherfuckers at Columbia really don't understand shit," he says. "So once again, I have to depend on OutKast to jump [Killer Mike's project] off." Antwan "Big Boi" Patton, 28, half of hip hop's most consistently dynamic group, has a really nice corner office. Stankonia-he and Andre 3000's state-of the-art studio launch pad-sits across the street, in the same building that used to house Bobby Brown's recording studio. Here at Aquemini Records, he sits and plots: There's the OutKast clothing line to ponder; a dog breeding business called Pitfall Kennels to consider; and the recording lives of artists like Slimm Calhoun and Killer Mike to oversee. And at the end of the day, he's got his own dang career to maintain. Through it all, his demeanor is that of a man who is cool and collected (the healthy Chia Pet's worth of bomb weed on his desk definitely makes being laid back a breeze). To Read The Rest Of This Story, Get This Issue At Your Local Newsstand Now! To Receive a Full Year of VIBE for $9.95, Click Here!
