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(Credit: Kai Regan)
So most of the rap songs and albums we love in the present day and maintain dearly could have by no means been made, as many MCs from Kanye West to 50 Cent have confronted near-death experiences. However, few know that Outkast’s André 3000 almost died in a automobile crash.
It’s laborious for hip-hop followers to think about a world with out ATLiens, Stankonia and Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, however that parallel musical universe was very almost thrust upon us unknowingly when André 3000 was younger.
This musical void was prevented. However, it was all because of a stranger. In a number of interviews, André 3000 (actual identify André Benjamin) revealed that the person who saved him unbelievably had a cell phone to name emergency providers, although the automobile crash occurred through the Nineteen Eighties.
Benjamins’ car accident, unlike Kanye West’s, wasn’t his fault as he wasn’t on the wheel. Moreover, he wasn’t the one particular person within the automobile. Throughout an interview with writer Mike Ayers, who printed One Final Track: Conversations on Life, Loss of life, and Music in 2020, Benjamin detailed the collision.
The ‘Hey Ya’ rapper unveiled that he was using in a automobile along with his pal and his pal’s mom when the incident occurred. However, to today, he doesn’t recall the crash however simply remembers a person with a now-ancient cell phone and waking up in hospital.
The pileup occurred earlier than he even met Large Boi as an adolescent in Lenox Mall and earlier than he fashioned a duo with Large Boi (actual identify Antwan Patton). Throughout his dialog with Ayers, he put a variety of emphasis on how younger he was when he almost died.
Recalling the accident, Benjamin instructed Ayers, “When I was younger, me and my friend were in a car accident. We were riding with my friend’s mom, but we were so young, we didn’t know what happened until we woke up in the hospital. I didn’t know. I was a kid.”
However, he remembered the unnamed hero who had saved him, recounting, “We were on this street in Atlanta, and it was a non-busy street. And fortunately, this guy who had money passed by — and he had one of the first working cell phones. It was like a suitcase. And he was able to call an ambulance.”
It’s secure to say André was unbelievably lucky {that a} man with a cell phone occurred to be close to the automobile when it collided, contemplating cell phones hadn’t develop into extensively out there at the moment. Elaborating on this, Benjamin acknowledged, “If we didn’t have that cell phone, we would have been out there for a minute — and might have died. Who knows. I don’t know if that’s a near-death experience. But I was definitely lucky.”
André’s near-death expertise is horrifying, however I believe it’s secure to say hip-hop can be thankful for the unknown man who saved the lifetime of André 3000.
You’ll be able to hear the rapper reflecting on close to loss of life on the EP ‘Look Ma No Hands’.