Andre 3000 has never been known to spit a whack verse. Ever since Outkast’s debut album Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, Andre 3000 a.k.a Dre or 3 Stacks has been spitting vicious flows, changing up his style over the years, but remaining one of the premier lyricists in the game. His storytelling prowess in particular is unique and unmatched. Check out his ten best verses below.

10.) UGK – International Players Anthem

This is a track that everyone is familiar with: the “International Players Anthem.” Out of everyone on this track, I think Dre had the best verse–no disrespect to the late great Pimp C. He spits this verse as if he were having a conversation with his homies, and they were trying to convince him to not get married. It all meshed well, and Dre did his thing with this one!

9.) Goodie Mob feat. – Thought Process

As Andre closes out the opening track of Goodie Mob’s debut album Soul Food (1995), he speaks on the daily struggles and issues in this world. He goes on to explain that he was only living for the day, and not the future. Andre 3000 did a great job of capturing this audience with this intriguing verse.

8.) Andre 3000 – A Life In The Day of Benjamin Andre

This is a verse that summarized his whole career. It was the outro of the only work that could be chalked up as a solo project– The Love Below (2003). He discusses his relations with Erykah Badu, Outkast, cars, and everything else that he hadexperienced throughout his adult life. Although we never got the completed version of this track, it still remains as one of his best verses.

7.) Outkast – ATLiens

One of the most timeless Outkast tracks of all time. The hook is a classic, but Andre’s verse takes the track to another level.

6.) Outkast – Da Art of Storytellin’ (Part 1)

Here, Dre tells the story of a girl he knew named Sasha: He was close friends with her, but they ended up getting older and grew apart. He later found out that Sasha was with a man who was treating her wrong. Dre hoped that one day he would see Sasha again, but she was found dead, seven months pregnant. It’s not just the drama of the story, but the way that Andre phrases it that makes this one of the best story tracks of all time. “It’s like that now, you better gon get the hump up out ya back now. It’s bout 4, 5 cats off in my ‘Lac now.”

5.) Big Boi feat. Andre 3000– Royal Flush

Now this track was only about 3 minutes long, but Andre shines through a full two of them. Dre pretty much drove the car on this one, and Big Boi and Rae (also featured) took the backseat.

4.) Outkast – Return Of The G

After taking the hiatus from weed and alcohol before ATLiens, Andre changed his style of dress, which led to people questioning his sexuality. With this verse, he addressed everything that was going on, as well as all that is buried in the word “gangster.”

3.) Outkast – D.E.E.P.

People often forget this track when they refer to Andre’s greatest verses, but listen: the way he slaughtered this beat was just unfair! He came in with a tongue twisting flow and witty bars and didn’t stop:“D.E.E.P., you want to go D.E.E.P., I’ll take ya D.E.E.P., you know you f*cked up when you let my mind creep.”

2.) Outkast – Babylon

In the first verse of this track, Andre 3000 speaks on how his mother was on heavy drugs when she was pregnant with him. Although his first verse was only 40 seconds deep, he spoke about a lot in that short period of time. “I came into this world high as a bird, from second hand cocaine powder. I know it sounds absurd. I never tooted it, but its in my veins.”

1. ) Outkast – Elevators

This is Andre 3000′s greatest lyrical performance of all time. The way he tells the story of seeing someone from high school was amazing. At the time, Outkast wasn’t as rich as everyone thought they were. They had a hit album, but they were still going through the same daily struggles as everyone else. “True, I got more fans than the average man, but not enough loot to last me ’til the end of the week. I live by the beat, like you live check to check.”

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“I just want to be respected as a writer,” says Malik Hall, the artist formerly known as KIDGNS (Kid Genius) and currently known as Haleek Maul, brooding emcee from Barbados. Throughout the interview Haleek has chosen his words very deliberately so when he says “writer” instead of  “lyricist,” there is clearly much weight to his word choice. “I’m not trying to jam a simile into every line,” he explains. For Haleek, intricate lyricism has become a craft for its own sake rather than because it enhances songs. Actively avoiding that lane, Haleek seeks to be noted for his imagery, his sonic presence. For inspiration, Haleek doesn’t listen to punchline-laced mixtapes: he listens to Andre 3000, Tricky and Bjork.

While he ritually listens to Outkast’s Aquemini at least once per week, the Andre 3000 influence isn’t immediately discernible; one has to really engage the music. The Tricky and Bjork influences are also difficult to discern, but their relationships with British super-producer duo Massive Attack conveniently mirror Haleek’s relationship with Supreme Cuts, a producer twosome who treat Haleek like a younger brother.

Their collaborative effort Chrome Lips, was released a few days ago, but Haleek says that it was a year in the making. None of the tracks were recorded with both parties present and Haleek didn’t meet the Chicagoan producers in person until this past summer, but the music says otherwise. Over perfectly murky beats, Haleek spits tales of decadence, despondence and swag. When asked how the collaborations were able to come out so seamlessly despite their different origins and nascent artistic relationship (they only met a year ago), Haleek gave a long answer and a short answer.

The long answer was: “We have different cultural influences, but we have similar mindsets. They have the same work ethic and drive that I do, but it’s just like we grew up on different things and we’re at different points in our lives as well. That’s why you find that we’re different but we still have the ability to collaborate. It’s like I’m a painter from someplace and the other guy is an architect. I decide to do graff all over his building. It’s still a pretty ass building, but it just has really pretty graffiti on it. That’s a collaboration if you think about it: it’s just taking on person’s strong points and another person’s strong points and kind of just like raveling them up in each other until you can’t differentiate which is which.” (The short answer was: “I’m Missy and they’re Timbo!”)

Haleek likens their collaboration to different cloths being woven together until the result is something completely foreign and new, but Chrome Lips is tagged as the product of “Supreme Cuts & Haleek Maul.” When asked why they decided to not go the Madvillain or Emanon route and coin a new name, Haleek says, “I think we just wanted people to know that this is Supreme Cuts and this is Haleek Maul and this is how we come together on a record. I don’t think we should have to rebrand it or make it a whole new thing. I think this is just Supreme Cuts showing their stuff in terms of the versatility of their production skills. On my part, it was a showcase of the different beats that I could flow on.” The finished product is great, but those cloths aren’t indistinguishable just yet.

Nevertheless, that may change. Alluding to upcoming projects, Haleek ambitiously assures that “game-changers” are in the works. The genre-blending and experimentation seen on Chrome Lips is just “practice,”Haleek assures. Typically, such sentiments are harbingers of an imminent sophomore slump, but Haleek has already released two projects in one year, so perhaps he’s already over that hurdle. As his run continues, we’ll see whether he’s gassed up because of strong lungs or because of hot Barbados air. I’m betting it’s the former.

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