The Guardian

London

As he sits, cra-dling a large bo-ttle of mineral water in the restaurant of a hotel, Andre Benjamin is difficult to miss. This is largely due to his hair, a sort of deconstructed afro that bears a passing resemblance to the coiffure of the Simpsons character Sideshow Bob.

Benjamin cuts a rather curious figure in the restaurant, but then again, you suspect that he cuts a rather curious figure wherever he goes. While his partner in Atlanta-based duo OutKast, Antwan “Big Boi” Patton, is the epitome of the southern-American rap star. Andre 3000 may be the most anomalous star in hip-hop’s long history.

His answers are usually preceded by lengthy pauses, during which he sighs, strokes his goatee beard and composes his thoughts. This is not normal behaviour for a rap superstar. In a world of weed-addled, champagne-sipping fast-food lovers, Benjamin is a vegetarian yoga enthusiast who paints in his spare time and has foresworn all intoxicants because “I was abusing it too much, I didn’t think I could last long doing that, so I had to chill out.”

His musical predilections are equally outre by hip-hop standards. He is unimpressed by his fellow rappers: “Hip-hop don’t have no fresh energy, none at all. It’s money driven, everybody tryin’ to make that cheque, nobody putting art in their albums any more.” Instead, his tastes currently run to the noisy “drill’n’bass” techno of Squarepusher and the Aphex Twin, the Ramones and the Buzzcocks’ stripped-down punk, plus the Strokes and the Hives.

He chose to promote their last album, 2001’s ‘Stankonia’,

by donning a long platinum wig and a flowery dress. He is

presumably the only rapper on earth who collects antique

silk scarves.

And, quite aside from the clothes and the abstemious behaviour, there is the music that Benjamin makes. OutKast have spent a decade releasing a series of increasingly psychedelic hip-hop albums — ‘Stankonia’ won a Grammy and spawned their biggest British hit, the superlative Miss Jackson — but those provide scant preparation for their latest release. ‘Speakerboxx’ and ‘The Love Below’ are two solo albums packaged as a set.

Despite the success of the ‘Speakerboxx’, ‘The Love Below’ set — in the US, it sold 7,50,000 copies in its first two weeks of release — its split nature has led to speculation that the duo’s days are numbered, fuelled by Benjamin’s dramatic pronouncements that he was on the verge of quitting the music industry altogether to pursue a career in acting.

However, anyone looking for clues to OutKast’s future might note that he talks about the duo in the past tense. “The way it was between me and Big Boi, it made the sound — we did great works, man — but I just know my own personality and I got to find new things to do. OutKast now, it’s like a double album. What’s the most natural thing to do from there? I don’t know. There’s always a possibility that we’ll get together again. We have three more albums to do for Arista Records, so we’ll definitely complete those.”

If they do split, it will mark the end of a relationship that began at high school in East Point, Georgia and has endured for 13 years., despite brushes with the law — the duo had a brief phase of car-stealing during their teens — and Benjamin’s eccentric approach to fashion. He admits that the latter put a particular strain on their friendship. “When we first came out we looked totally normal, but after our second album (1996’s ‘ATLiens’), I just got bored. I bought this turban and started to wear it. Thought it looked cool. I started buying one-of-a-kind things from thrift stores... I had girls who were making things for me, these outfits I drew.”

Whatever OutKast’s future, Benjamin has no shortage of projects on the go. There’s the films and two new clothing lines, one for children and one offering both “outlandish signature pieces and clothes the common man can wear.” He talks idly of forming a jazz-influenced band, releasing an instrumental album. “But right now, I feel like I have a mission.”

And what precisely would that mission be? “I have no idea,” he sighs, stroking his beard again. “I have no idea. I have no idea. But I know I’m not finished just yet.”