Jeff Sledge, a prominent A&R who worked at Jive Records, recently stopped by ItsTheReal's A Waste of Time podcast and revealed that UGK's Pimp C was not happy the first time he heard André 3000's now iconic opening verse to the hit single "Int'l Players Anthem."
"You know how it starts with André doing the thing. It's kinda almost with no drums. Its a capella and stuff. When André sent his piece back and had no drums, Chad was pissed off," Sledge explained. "He was like 'Fuck Andre, man. How the fuck is he gonna send my shit back and take my drums out?' Fuck that.' He was going off about André taking the drums out."
Sledge then took a moment to talk about how this verse perfectly fit with the Outkast member's style. "André had a thing. Even if you listen to André's stuff now, he has a thing. He doesn't really like drums under his stuff much because he wants to hear what he's saying."
That's when Sledge took matters into his own hands and offered up his opinion to Pimp C. "I was like, 'Chad, hold up fam. Let's rock it like that because when André doing a capella and then when the beat drops, that's when your verse drops. And then you, your verse is gonna lift the record up because now the beat is rocking and your verse is kicking. And he's like 'Alright, Jeff. I'm gonna give it a shot. If it fucks up, it's on you."
Clearly, Sledge's idea worked out pretty well. Watch him explain the whole thing above.
