While we are more familiar with Andre 3000 as one of the arguably greatest rappers ever, the artist has also become a fixture in the fashion world. A few months ago, Andre 3000 joined Swedish footwear line Tretorn as their creative collaborator and even starred as the face of the brand’s fall campaign.
Now in a recent interview with GQ Style, Andre 3000 has revealed another item he’d like to check off his fashion to-do list: designing Anita Baker-inspired tees. While the idea may sound unconventional, Andre 3000 further explained the inspiration.
“I was going through an Anita Baker phase, and I started trying to buy a T-shirt. So I go on the Internet and I find this site that had shirts with photos of Anita on them. So I bought two or three of them. Then when I got ’em in the mail, they were like—the part of the shirt where the picture was printed on there was so hard.”
Once Andre 3000 realized the shirts he ordered were bootleg, he had the urge to pay homage to the R&B legend the right way.
“I’m an artist, and I’m buying bootleg shirts of another artist, so I felt bad. So I was like, Maybe, so my conscience feels good, let me try to find an address for Anita and send her a little check. And it’ll be a joke, like, ‘Anita, I just bought these shirts, I feel bad about it, here’s $50.’ Then I started thinking, Wouldn’t it be great to design a line of Anita Baker tees and present the line to Anita? Maybe she needs some merch.”
Baker even rsponded via Twitter to Andre’s adoration — and it looks like they will work together to make something happen. Amen!
GQ Style allowed Andre 3000 to design exclusive custom designs for their shoot, and the rapper intends to pitch the t-shirt line to Anita Baker to make it an actual reality. We can only hope that the singer is on board. If so, this line will be just as legendary as Baker herself.