André 3000 and Rick Rubin get deep into the creative process in a recent conversation on Rick’s podcast, Broken Record. There’s a fascinating portion early in the conversation when they discuss how André found his voice as a young artist.

RR: “There’s no shortcuts to find your voice, you just have to do the work.”

A3: “It’s hard. I remember times when Rico Wade, there would be times when I’d come down and say Ric check this out, and he’d just get up and walk away... I’d be like, ‘Man. What’s wrong with you?’ It took me a minute to realize that wasn’t it (ie what he performed wasn’t his “authentic voice,” yet)…

Another time, I just started rapping with my normal voice, my speaking voice, and Riko said, ‘That’s it.’

And that was it.”

RR: “It’s amazing how those breakthroughs happen, almost when you’re not really looking…”

Rico Wade’s critical perspective was essential to André 3000’s development as an artist. As they say, “Love your critics.” He needed Rico to be honest. Such criticism works best as part of a learning crew, and when you’re putting work out there long before you feel it’s ready for prime time.

Encouragement and compliments may feel great — and have their place in the creative process — but many times the push we really need comes from the critics.

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