Andre 3000 didn't like OutKast's 'So Fresh, So Clean,' says Sleepy Brown

OutKast's beloved single "So Fresh, So Clean," off their 2000 Stankonia album, was a radio mainstay when it was released. Between that cut and "Ms. Jackson," it could be called their signature song.

But André 3000 didn't like "So Fresh, So Clean" when he first heard the instrumental. That's according to Sleepy Brown, who sings on the hook. He spoke to SPIN about the song and explained why it took so long for 3 Stacks to appreciate it.

"The funny thing is André didn’t really like it at first. André didn’t like that record," said Brown. "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 [Boi]. 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. We thought Dre was going to be happy with it at first, but he really wasn’t."

But once bassist Preston Crump added his touch, Andre came around.

"[André] was cool, but he didn’t really like it until Preston, our bass player, played a cold line on that song,” Brown explained. “When Dre heard that, he got excited and came up with 'the coolest motherfunkers on the planet' part. He was following that line he heard. Thanks to Preston, that’s the reason why Dre even got on that record."

Andre hasn't responded to Brown's interview yet, but in September he talked about once listening to old OutKast songs and having an "out-of-the-body" experience afterward.

The rapper explained that one of his friends sent him an old interview where he was talking about an OutKast song. That made him listen to more of them, and suddenly he found himself being led down a rabbit hole of the group's music.

Andre said he realized at that point how different of a person he is and how much time has passed since making those records. The now-49-year-old has said repeatedly that he's no longer interested in being a rapper, because he aged out of it.