Andre 3000 is better than your Favorite Rapper without even trying. Here are the Mixtapes to prove it.

Rappers who smile.

Really, while I respect 90% of the music out there and whatever you’re listening to… I don’t care who your favorite rapper is right now. I don’t care how street Jeezy and Rick Ross keep it. I don’t care about Lil’ Waynes (albeit hilarious) punchlines. If you ever seriously listened to 50 cent, your opinion in hip hop is invalid. I’m still waiting for Kanye to recover from the  major loss of his mother (that boy is not over that shit yet), and I’m not impressed with your emo raps and attempts to channel  The Native Tougues/ATCQ  Movement from the early ’90′s. I want Lyrical Power and Performance. I want that hip hop that you actually have to LISTEN and pay attention to in order to comprehend its meaning. And I stick with that. With all that being said, basically…. your favorite rapper probably can’t compete with Andre 3000. I’m pretty sure of it.

In the game for almost 20 years at this point, 3000 has amassed a collection of legendary songs, verses, solo songs, and guest appearances on everyone tracks. He’s got more albums, certified hip hop classics, grammies and talent than anything on mainstream radio. The amazing thing? He really hasn’t done anything in the form of a full song since The Love Below album. While Big Boi was hard at work on his new (and wonderful) project, he’s been working on a kids TV show, seen out and about with his son Seven (with Erykah Badu), and chillin with Mos Def’s most recent ex-wife (ITS A TRAP). Somehow, it doesn’t stop him from hopping on other peoples tracks for a few bars and dropping some of the hottest lines with sickest delivery you’ve heard.

You need proof? Here go the mixtapes.

The Verses = All of Andre’s hottest Verses from Early OutKast to Stankonia. They basically dropped off Big Boi off the tracks, and mixed ‘Dre’s verses into a mixtape. And I mean everything.  About 50 songs worth.

Whole Foods = All of Andre’s most recent appearances on other peoples songs only. Basically, someone found anything that Andre 3000 guested on up until 2010, and put it all on one mixtape. From his song that he did with Gwen Stephani, to His MONSTER verses on the “Throw Some D’s” remix and UNK’s “Walk It Out.” Its 23 songs of  pretty amazing.

Go ahead and download all of that, and give it a listen. It will hold you over until he decides to get back to rapping fulltime.

And please, enjoy my Archives/RSS Feed of musical nerdery while I go take a break for a few days. I’ll see you guys in a bit.
-E