The Funk Soul Brothers

"Most of the clothes in the 'Hey Ya!' video I designed," notes Dre as he reaches for some edamame. He's starting his own clothing line, Benjamin Andre, which will concentrate, at first, on the all-important accessory. "You can have on some total bullshit," he says, "but if you have cool socks, or a hat, or a pocket square, it's like, 'Oh, that shit's fly.' "

How about when you guys started out? Hip-hop is such a macho world.

In the very beginning, I tried to make sure I fit in. We looked like regular cats. I had an Atlanta Braves jersey on in the first video. You had to look macho. It wasn't until our second album, when I started producing, that I decided to make things more personal. I studied the way different artists looked. Prince, Sly Stone -- they were dope for their time. And the jazz guys, too. They were on heroin, but they looked good. Then I went to Jamaica and decided to grow out my dreads. I wanted to keep them covered while I was growing them out, so I found this white Indian turban. It looked cool. Then I started wearing silk scarves, and it went from there. In hip-hop -- well, in music, period -- people don't have that style anymore.

Did you expect to do as well as you guys did at the Grammys?

Honestly? I thought we'd win that many awards, but not in those categories. I thought "Hey Ya!" would get Record of the Year. When Coldplay won, I was like, "Oh, really?" I'm a White Stripes fan, and right now they're considered the saviors of rock & roll, so I thought they would give Album of the Year to them.

Was it a fun night?

Norah Jones called me the night before and said, "Are you ready?" I said, "I guess I'm as ready as I'll ever be." It was stressful, because a lot of attention was on us. I don't like that. The best moment was when we won Album of the Year and Big Boi gave me a hug. The embrace lasted five -- eight, nine -- no, maybe fifteen seconds. The Love Below was originally supposed to be a solo album. At the last minute, management and the record company said it wasn't a good time to do that, so Big Boi did Speakerboxxx. But I was taking so long to finish The Love Below that he wanted to release that as a solo album. A lot of people don't know the album almost wasn't made. So there were a lot of emotions in those seconds.

Are you feeling burned out on music?

I wouldn't say burned out. But definitely uninspired. But anything could come along any day. I'm starting a band. You know the guitar player from the 'Hey Ya!' video, Johnny Vulture?

Um, yeah. [In the video, Dre plays every member of the band, including Johnny Vulture.]

Johnny started a band called the Vultures. He and Andre 3000 hate each other, because Andre 3000 thinks Johnny took his sound.

What else do you have planned?

I want to go to Juilliard to study classical music.

Really? When?

I've been thinking about it for about a year. But things got kinda busy. This record took off. I can't be in school right now. But I'm taking saxophone and clarinet lessons. I'd study classical composition and music theory. Like, now, I was working on songs for Gwen Stefani's album, and I could tell her how to sing them but not the range.

[Excerpt From Issue 944 — March 18, 2004]