The Great Gatsby is set to open all over the universe this weekend, and with it will come the onslaught of heavily-funded PR campaigns and sudden massed interest in the fashion and style of the ’20s (Again – didn’t we finally just move past that decade after a major trend wave thanks to Chicago, the musical?).
Anyway, because this is Baz Luhrmann, it’s a safe bet the movie and everything surrounding it will be a mega flashy, postmodern pastiche and that includes a soundtrack with all your favorite contemporaries like, for example, this hypnotic, dead behind the eyes take on Amy Winehouse’s hit “Back to Black” sung by Beyoncé and André 3000.
Maybe it will work when in the context of the film, but on its own, this just feels like they’ve ripped out the pain-riddled soul of the original (knock-out fantastic) song, thrown it through a computer program that makes songs sound clinically washed out and insistently mid-nineties, and had Beyoncé and André 3000 sing it while high on opium. Seriously, outside the film, I can’t imagine a time that this song would be the song you’d ask for. I mean, aside from a Friday evening in, alone, high on Percocet while playing Super Mario Brothers 2 and eating gummi bears.
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Amy sang it best of course, Beyoncé is OK, the ANdré 3000 (whoever he is) sucks ass in a very bad way. Even Amy’s father aknowledges it and wished he hadn’t participated in this project
Beyonce changed it from a drug-addled state to this whorish mess. Both work, but honestly I like Amy’s style much more. So much of what Andre 3000 did was unnecessary and ugly though. >.<
“Whoever he is”
Oh, you know, one half of the GRAMMY-AWARD WINNING duo Outkast, and one of the greatest rappers alive… But I guess that makes him irrelevant if he’s incapable of covering Amy Winehouse to her father’s liking.
She’s over rated and full of her self. She is taking herself to seriously, thinking she can sing anything which she can’t. She needs to BOW DOWN BITCH to those better then her. Andre needs to take a few more voice lessons. There’s a reason he;s not had a hit in years
THIS SONG SUCKS
“There’s a reason he;s not had a hit in years”
Not to be a total André 3000 stan, but he also hasn’t released a song in years (aside from featured verses on other artists’ songs).
“I Do” by Young Jeezy hit number four on the US R&B charts, largely thanks to André 3000’s verse. He also was on the original version of Beyoncé’s “Party”, which hit number two on the US R&B charts.
Do I think his vocals on this song are necessarily good? No… But the man deserves some respect for his contribution to hip-hop and the music world as a whole.
Lot’s of talent here, but they didn’t do a very good job with this. It could have been awesome, but this is strictly b-side stuff.
I really don’t know who he is and I don’t really like rap, sorry.
Just people bragging while talking fast most of the time, it’s boring
The only rapper I like is MIssy Eliott
But I think most people have never heard of him, and this thread is about this cover ( which pretty much sucks) , not the André 3000 appreciation thread!
Um, most people have heard of Outkast, which means they’re familiar with him. I realize this isn’t the “André 3000 appreciation” thread, but it’s also not the “let’s bash André 3000” thread either.
Oh cool! Dismissing an entire genre of music, just because you don’t enjoy it.
Just because you haven’t heard of him doesn’t most people haven’t. Andre 3000 isn’t just some z-list rapper he’s been around for a while.
Those German latexy twins with braids won a Grammy, too. Means nothing, actually.
Andre 3000 is pretty irrelevant, in all honesty, outside of people who pay attention to the Grammys. I believe he wrote lyrics like “roses smell like poo.”
Brilliant. Watch out Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell and Neil Young. We’ve got a poet laureate of music here trying to get your throne. “Poo.”
The “rapper” sucks ass. So does that largish r&b chick. Wasn’t the ship in 2001 a Space Odyssey called Andre 3000?
::eye roll::
Every music critic shits their drawers whenever he contributes a verse to another artist’s song. You can’t dismiss him based on one song. Sorry.
Also, why the FUCK is relevance so important? One of the best songs on this soundtrack is from someone who’s yet to achieve any relevance.
Outcast is not a rap group, they are hip hop…
Totally unnecessary cover. Back To Black is one of the best songs (and album) in recent memory and this interpretation is so muddy it’s Back To Brown!
Nope. Nopenopenope. They shoulda just re-released Amy’s version at this point, I feel like I was stuck on a permanent loop of someone walking in slow-motion…and they didn’t even use the entire song? Nuuuuupe.
So fucking disappointed that people don’t know Andre 3000. Maybe there’s a tired ass Rihanna dance mix that y’all can break your neck to somewhere.