Outkast's beloved hit "Hey Ya!" turned 10 years old this month , and despite its age, the song has remained as infectious as ever. For those fans who still shamelessly dance to the lyrics, "shake it like a Polaroid picture," we thought it'd be interesting to find a little about the story behind the song. So we reached out to Andr 3000 himself.
The internet is filled with tidbits about the apparent history of the 2003 hit. Here's what Mr. Benjamin said about what's fact and what's fiction.
Andr 3000:The song went through several working titles, that was one of them. That song was actually the oldest one on the album because I had started writing it during the Stankonia tour.
Andr 3000:There was never a screenplay but I did envision a story about a guy that went to Paris and each song represented a different woman. The concept started off as songs, then I reached out to a buddy to talk about filming it. We were green and didnt realize how long it would take to get it done.
At the time, shooting a movie wasnt done on digital cameras. It took time to shoot and a lot of money to finance. Musically, there was one vehicle (the record company) and you released full albums. Those realities affected the original plan.
Andr 3000:The song isnt autobiographical, its more like fantasies or tangents based on real life. Moments from my life spark a thought when Im writing. The story was set in the 50s, so the song was me trying do a Woody Allen kinda thing, a humorous kind of honesty.
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We actually reached out to Woody Allen to appear in the video for Hey Ya! His schedule didnt work though. We had also asked Ralph Lauren because I designed the clothes in the video to look like polo players, which is a style he popularized.
Andr 3000, in a previous interview with The Daily Mail : I designed those before I had my own label -- Benjamin Bixby -- using fabric I found in my hometown. I got a seamstress to sew them up for me, and then the year the single came out I started to see more and more green in people's collections. I don't know if there's such a thing as a royal green, but that's what I like to call it.
Andr 3000:Yep. I was heavy into that -- this was my bad version of that because I didnt know how to do it.
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