Andre Benjamin, half of the OutKast outfit and also known as Andre 3000, has always been a rather animated artist. But now the rapper/singer/producer/actor has taken that characteristic even farther.
Benjamin is the producer, co-creator, and star of a new series on Cartoon Network: “Class of 3000,” a play on his stage name.
The new show follows Benjamin’s character, Sonny Bridges, who leaves an unfulfilling career in the music business to return to his old high school in Atlanta to take the music teacher gig. There he leads a group of seven musical prodigies in their journey in learning and loving music.
Yet another project for the Renaissance man, Benjamin told the EUR that this latest outlet is just another place for him to showcase his love of music.
“I don't think it just lends itself to being a rapper or a country artist, [or] some rock stars.” Benjamin said about his smooth transition into acting. “I think it's just another way to express yourself, another way to be free. And that's all, you know, that musicians are living for, just an avenue to do it, basically.”
Benjamin and the producers at the network have been working on this project for more than two years. It was an idea that sparked more of an “Adult Swim” (mature audiences) type series based on the “Speakerboxxx/The Love Below” disc and molded into the more primetime “Class of 3000.”
“What we wanted to do was make something really creative and something like a place for artists, musicians, and actual, like, visual artists. So I think we've kept that going, you know, for the two years, and it's finally about to blast,” Benjamin said.
The show expects a lot more development as there's talk that the series will feature guest appearances from some of Benjamin’s music star friends. He also said that a soundtrack disc is certainly something they're talking about, too, since every episode will have a song that the kids perform. Benjamin said that at the end of the season or perhaps the middle, there will be a collection of the songs written, produced, and performed by him. Plus, as it takes place at a performing arts school, Benjamin revealed that episodes will also delve into the art of drama, writing, etc. It’s kind of like “Fat Albert” meets “Fame.”
“Yeah. I think making it in a performing arts school makes the setting more exciting because even though this class is about music, I think, you get to see other characters that are in drama, that are in science fiction, you know, like class so it just makes it a more fun surrounding,” Benjamin said. “It kind of mirrors the school that I went to. Like a lot of these characters were made out of kids I knew growing up. Like even Lil' D is little version of me, and I went to a school in Atlanta called Sutton, and I was in a drama class doing that kind of thing. And it was just a fun environment so I just wanted to recreate it in the cartoon.”
Fellow co-creator and co-executive producer Tom Lynch agreed that the series grew out of Benjamin’s experiences.
“The influence was really more about Andre's beginnings. When I went down to Atlanta and we met, he took me around his world as we started building layer and layer upon the show."
With the recent movie “Idlewild” under his belt and now the premier of the Cartoon Network show coming soon, Andre 3000 fans find it no wonder the artist hasn’t toured. But Benjamin said that it’s not the projects that have taken him from the music stage – it’s love lost.
“I stopped touring before any of this happened. I stopped touring maybe -- what? -- two, two and a half years ago. And it's just because after a while you don't feel the same, the same kind of passion that you did when you first started, but I still love to make music and I think it's in me. I'll make music forever, but I just wanted to take my time to do other things that I really love instead of being on stage and kind of going through the motions and knowing I'm not really in it,” he explained.
However, fans will get a chance to get into this latest project tonight. A promo for the series, “Sunny Bridges: From Bankhead to Buckhead” airs this evening on Cartoon Network at 7pm (E/P). The show premieres Friday, November 3.
source: www.EURweb.com