Dre’s already on it, we need to get you on there. After all, if one were to compile his guest verses from, say, 2005 until 2016, is that not a tape we would all roll our windows down in winter for? T-Pain leads a gospel choir in song, as it should be. DJ Paul: Three 6 Mafia was originally on the record, but Sony was actin' a fool and didn’t want [us on it], which was dumb as hell. “Int’l Players Anthem” is a hell of a song, yes. Big Boi: [Jive] called and was like, “We wanna get you and Dre on this remix with UGK.” We was on the same label. They sent the track and I just wrote what I thought "choosin'" for real meant to me. I know, internally, that I need the answer to keep being yes. This is crazy. The song, largely forgotten until that point, was Willie Hutch’s “I Choose You.”. The group was already three No. But I guess the one we did was the one they decided to go on. The choice sung about here, as with many popular songs, is the choice to commit — the choice to go all-in on the feeling of love, but not necessarily to stay there. That shit y'all doin' is the most gangster goin' cause you doin' what the fuck you wanna do." The song, produced by DJ Paul and Juicy J of Three 6 Mafia, features verses from … The work was profitable and plentiful, but didn’t always yield many hits, and depending on the film, could be looked down on or seen as a joke. To open almost any other song with a verse this good would be unfair. It felt like a win for the good guys — a group that grinded for years in the Southern underground, ahead of their time, finding an era that fit them perfectly. It was just cool, man. So we was like, “Yeah, let’s do it.”, André 3000: I would hear from Bun every now and then and we kept talkin' about doin' somethin'. But, at least in the eyes of his particular Motown era, he didn't have the magnetic star power built into his personality that someone like Marvin or Smokey had. It just didn’t work for [Project Pat] because Sony didn’t get behind it. They just scared and don't know what to do with it. Within the vast and storied work of UGK, “Int’l Players Anthem,” while a highlight, isn’t the whole of it. There is a lesson learned, and the film ends. Make no mistake, “Int’l Player’s Anthem” is teeming with slightly misguided rap braggadocio, overrunning the plain romance that André's verse might have hinted at. Though the song, in its final form, could have made Willie Hutch a household name, there was an up-and-coming group of young singers that Motown was attempting to use as a springboard into its ’70s era, to show that its ’60s magic wasn’t yet lost. The game was released worldwide for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on February 22, 2019. This song was UGK and Three 6 Mafia. His album just came out. Pimp said he wanted that same beat and [didn’t want] to change nothin'. Still, I think about that Willie Hutch interview, about songs living beyond the body, and think of how the true gift of a songwriter is knowing what of themselves they can sacrifice in the name of becoming timeless. UGK "International Player's Anthem (I Choose You)": So, I typed a text to a girl I used to see Saying that I chose this cutie pie with whom I wanna be A... [Andre 3000 with chorus in back saying "I choose you babe!"] His “Int’l Players Anthem” verse wasn’t his first truly great one — he’d had standout verses on Outkast songs for more than a decade before 2007 — but it was the one that changed the André narrative, the one that pushed him into the conversation as one of the greatest rappers of all time. From that beginning to Big Boi’s closing verse, filled with advice in the vein of “you can’t trust these women,” and the two UGK verses in between, the song runs an honest gamut from tender to somewhat treacherous. Everything worked out for the best. I was like, "There’s nothin' you can do about that, but he was like, "I want to rap to that muthafucka." There's no questioning UGK's legendary status. However, the He was the one most likely to gently design the interior of a moment, the one you could count on to be both vulnerable and vicious, sometimes in the same song. The feeling of Willie Hutch, the feeling of André 3000: The two are in conversation with each other here, through the two songs. It would have likely been a brilliant album cut, even if not for the video. Big Boi: It was dope. About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features I think of Willie Hutch, dying in Texas and being reborn again in Memphis, and repurposed by a pair of Texas rappers who were desperate for a hit. The idea of memory: each small heartbreak riddled with its own particular set of ghosts. It is nearly five hours on Interstate 45 from Dallas to Port Arthur, four and a half if you’re flying and miss the Houston traffic. Rappers were also becoming more introspective, in part because they were aging and reckoning with all of the experiences within. James Blake Shares a New Track and an “International Players Anthem” … I don't know why I went to marriage as a topic, but I guess that's the ultimate version of "choosin'." Which, I think, is why falling in love is an easier task than choosing to live a life in love. I love OutKast. Not falling in love itself, but staying there. It’s one of those songs — rap as the great unifier, pulling a night open with its bare hands and giving the people some memory to sing along to as a star to pull them home. The DJ and producer Paul Oakenfold was also announced on the poster, but canceled at the last moment, as he was on tour with Madonna at the time. I am less of a cynic now than I was a year ago, or at least I’m working on it. Bun B: In the midst of not being able to clear Three 6 Mafia before the album comin' out and the fact that OutKast was already signed to Jive as a group, it just kind of happened that way. That’s all he kept sayin', that [it] was a hit record. “Player’s Anthem” was originally supposed to be a song from UGK and Three 6 Mafia because we were actually workin' on a group together. Featuring André 3000 and Big Boi of OutKast, the song served as the second single to their gold-selling Underground Kingz LP and garnered a Grammy Award nomination. UGK’s “Int’l Players Anthem” is song loved by hip hop enthusiasts around the world. The UGK song “International Players Anthem (I Choose You),” released as a single on this day 10 years ago, briefly unearthed the musical legacy of Willie Hutch, and the history that goes with it. When he and Pimp asked me to jump on the IPA song I was excited to work with them again. I'm good. When I get out [of prison], I want you to give me that beat. There aren’t many great soul songs about a love 10 or 20 years in. One of the best I’ve ever heard. International Player’s Anthem featuring Andre 3000, Pimp C, Bun B, and Big Boi Here we go again with the Battle of the Posse Cuts! “Songs live on long after you’ve gone,” he told the Dallas Observer in 1998, seven years before he died at age 60 in Duncanville. 1 album. As horns swell around the scene, and a chorus of harmonizing voices fall in on top of the horns, Goldie’s voice, softer than it is in the rest of the film, cuts in: “Ever since I was 13, my biggest problem has been just to find the right road to that rainbow that everybody talks about. The most notable soundtracks called in big names — Curtis Mayfield for Superfly, Isaac Hayes for Shaft. UGK and Three 6 Mafia were workin' on Underground Mafia that was goin' to be a group with all four of us together. The album's music didn't contain as drastic of a shift in sound as many expected, but it was much more sample-heavy than their earlier efforts. Hutch, perhaps, entered the game understanding that his personal career aspirations might be sacrificed for the greater good, and I suppose that, too, is a type of insurmountable love. View credits, reviews, tracks and shop for the 2007 Vinyl release of "Int'l Players Anthem (I Choose You)" on Discogs. But once we got it we knew it was special. Everybody knew it was special. So, I typed a When he came home he was like, "Man, I love this song and it was a hit and they didn’t promote that muthafucka like they should."