Last October, an Andre 3000 interview on GQ was released about the artist and his development post-Outkast. The interview was fantastic, however, many individuals on social media seemed to only focus on the fact of the matter that Andre 3000 said that Big Boi was the better rapper of the duo. What should have taken large notice was how Andre 3000 gave such a powerful word about creatives’ depression that was horrendously overlooked for the modern creative and those navigating the music industry as artists and celebrities in the same vein.
Amidst over incredible details about his current lifestyle, love life, and family life that was previously unknown of the extremely eclectic yet highly praised rapper, Andre 3000 dived into the most traumatic and heartbreaking parts of his life including past performances, relationships, and a psychoanalysis of self that displayed the growing-up process and rationalization of the world as according to artists and creators in the modern sphere.
I mean, since age 17 people have catered to me and Big Boi. It’s strange when, your whole life, everyone has treated you different from everybody else. They say that if you’re an entertainer, whatever time you took off, you stay that age. I was 17. I wonder how my son feels.
-Andre 3000, GQ Interview 2017
This quote is a quote that I could not quite get out of my head. With this quote, he talked about the gravity of the price of fame. Although one may receive all the privileges that comes with early fame, the pampered lifestyle may very well stifle the growing-up process.
Also importantly, Andre 3000 talked about how after a time he went into a spiraling creative depression in which it was extremely bad and he wasn’t able to make music for years.
I guess why most people move to New York City: a change, a new start. My kid went off to college, and my parents died—both of ’em within the last six years. I was like, I’ve kinda outlived Atlanta. It’s not like I go to the studio—I’m just sitting around wasting time and doing stuff I’m not supposed to be doing.
You can’t run from it. Especially when you stop being at your height, and you can’t match that energy. So you try to find other ways to match it, and you really can’t.
…
I was in all three holes. I was in a creative hole, a personal hole, and I was still not dealing with my mom’s and my father’s deaths. And really, I don’t know if I have still. You know: Just push that away. The problem with being successful is you can do whatever you do times ten. And no one to stop you. You can easily go down the wrong path and you get into that place. And the thing that brings you out is other people.
-Andre 3000, GQ Interview 2017
This time for Andre 3000 was so critical for him because he was on the verge of fading away internally. He wasn’t able to create as vividly as he once did with his extraordinary, Afro-Futurist lyrically-poetic raps.
However, because he was simply Andre 3000, the world kept demanding for him to put out content, solo albums, whatever mind you to keep up his discography and his power as an artist. Andre 3000 revealed his newest clothing projects in the GQ interview, elucidating with his life example and personal journey these past few years that as a creative it is impossible to rush the process. For creatives, the pressure from society and peers (either indirectly or directly) about having to constantly create drains the modern creative, compromising their free-flowing thought process and peace of mind.
From Andre’s interview, we can learn a few things, especially those who are creatives today: Creatives have the power to visually, orally and magnificently display powerful images, alternate realities and critiques of society in ways that cannot be measured quantitatively. Art has the power to transform and save lives. But, in the words of Aubrey Drake Graham, one has to question in regards to their mental health and one’s sanity: “Who’s going to save me when I need saving?”
Ultimately, as ambitious creatives, we shouldn’t be pushed into the allure of fame and fortune taking care of all of our desires especially when our primary role is to create and be free form in order to make the world a better place regardless of others’ expectations of what the creative should be creating.
Anytime we find itself overexerting our energy in our creative efforts, we should also take time to find peace and balance for ourselves whether that be exercising, finding love, traveling, finding a hobby, and/or finding oneself as Andre 3000 did. These earthly vessels of our bodies are all we have, despite our celestial like talents and amazingly creative gifts. As much as a creative deserves to have their art showcased, receiving the recognition they deserve, creatives also deserve peace of mind and peace of spirit.
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