André 3000 Recalls Thinking Prince Was \"Taking A Dig\" At Him First Time They Met

While still returning from his music hiatus, André 3000 is opening up about his experiences in the industry. Recently, in a conversation with Questlove on his Questlove Supreme podcast, the new Blue Sun artist explained how meeting Prince for the first time wasn't necessarily how he thought it would be.

“You know, when people pass away, you just kinda want to respect [their legacy], but I think Prince would—I think he would enjoy it,” he said about his newest album “I [had] met Prince in passing. [Around the time of] The Love Below, I lived in L.A. I remember me and the homie goin’ out to a club on Sunset [Boulevard].”

He continues to explain that Prince was also in the club that night. When André 3000 came up to his section, Prince invited him to sit but he was very nervous and it showed.

“So I’m sitting there, and he starts talking about ‘Hey Ya,’” he recalled. “But what he said, I didn’t know how to take it, if he was taking a dig at me or what. He said, ‘I like that song, “Hey Ya,” man, like, I thought I was the only person who did songs in those tempos.’ That’s what he said to me. I didn’t know if he was like, ‘Mmm. Take that, n-gga.’ I didn’t know how to take it; this is my hero."

André 3000 also shared that Prince gave him some unsolicited advice that he wasn't sure about as well.

“The album had just come out, and we were trying to figure out the next single. And so I didn’t know what to say him, so I said, ‘Hey, have you heard the album?’ He’s like, ‘Yeah, I heard it.’ I say, ‘Well, what do you think the next single should be?’ Then he said another Prince thing; he said, ‘In my day, we only had one shot.’ Basically, he was saying, it don’t matter now, whatever you do, it don’t matter. And I didn’t know how to take that either. It’s like, okay, cool,” he concluded.