OutKast's Andre 3000 appears on Esthero's Wikked Lil' Girls album, due this spring. The Grammy-winning hip-hop star agreed to sing on the Toronto-based singer's record -- a sexy, sophisticated blend of jazz, pop and R&B -- after she sent him four songs this summer.
"He called me a couple of days later," Esthero says, "and said, 'What are we doing, and when?'"
Esthero flew down to OutKast's Stankonia Studios in Atlanta in July, where Andre contributed vocals to "Jungle Book," which Esthero describes as "a fantasy song about being tired of your surroundings and moving to the jungle and living in a tree fort and dancing with fireflies."
After the two hung out in the lounge, Andre emerged with his animalistic, cannibalistic vocal part, featuring the line "I'll eat you alive."
"When I heard it, I thought he said, 'I'll eat you all night,' and I was laughing," Esthero says. "I said to him, 'I don't think you can say that,' and he said, 'Noooooo, I'm saying, 'I'll eat you alive -- like a cannibal.' . . . He's so talented, so humble and so fun. I'll remember the night in the studio with him forever."
Andre 3000 will join Julia Roberts, Oprah Winfrey, John Cleese and Steve Buscemi in lending their vocal talents to the upcoming film adaptation of the classic children's book "Charlotte's Web." Production is scheduled to begin Jan. 31 in Melbourne Australia.
Andre 3000 will voice Elwyn the crow, Roberts will voice Charlotte the spider in the film, which will blend live action with CGI animation.