André 3000 Was Not A Fan Of Original Version Of ‘So Fresh, So Clean’

In OutKast‘s legendary discography,  “So Fresh, So Clean” is one of their biggest songs. But André 3000 wasn’t feeling the original version.

During an interview with SPIN about the creation of the classic track, Sleepy Brown revealed that it was intended as a track for Big Boi because André 3000 couldn’t get down with it.

“The funny thing is André didn’t like it at first. André didn’t like that record,” Brown said. “It wasn’t like he didn’t think it was good — it just wasn’t matching where he was. We really just did it for Big.

“We knew André was moving to something else, but we knew on that album it needed that hood theme. When Big heard it, he loved it,” Brown continued. “We thought Dre was going to be happy with it at first, but he really wasn’t.”

But when bass player Preston Crump played his funk on the track,  it immediately caught André’s attention.

“When Dre heard that, he got excited and came up with ‘the coolest motherfunkers on the planet’ part,” Brown said. “He was following that line he heard. Thanks to Preston, that’s the reason why Dre even got on that record.”

Brown also shared how he and fellow Organized Noize founder, the late Rico Wade, collaborated to produce “So Fresh, So Clean.” 

“I actually came up with the idea and went to the Dungeon, played a little piano line for Rico,” Brown recalled. “He was slick with words and stuff, so instead of me writing it, I asked him to write it. And I was like, ‘I’m just going to put down a melody of it.”

“Once I did that and gave it to him, he listened to it. The next morning, he told me he was in the shower listening to it and started singing the words ‘so fresh and so clean, clean.’ It sounded like a commercial, but I knew it was something special because of just him,” he continued.

While Outkast’s chemistry was undeniable during the making of Stankonia, André recently shared that musically, he and Big Boi are in totally different places. The chances of a new Outkast album are not looking good.

Speaking with Rolling Stone, André 3000 gave an update on the status of Outkast.

“I’ll say maybe 10, 15 years ago, in my mind, I thought an OutKast album would happen. I don’t know the future, but I can say that we’re further away from it than we’ve ever been,” André said.