Sexyy Red and André 3000 didn’t start making music under their now-iconic names.
The two hip-hop stars made an appearance on the latest episode of The Shop hosted by LeBron James, 39, and Maverick Carter, 44, uploaded on Thursday.
At the top of the episode, 49-year-old André 3000 of OutKast wanted to check in with the Hood’s Hottest Princess, 26, to make sure it was cool to address her as
“Sexyy” for short.
“So that’s cool when we say ‘Sexyy?'” asked André.
“Yeah, that’s cool,” Sexyy said, adding that although she doesn’t mind being called “Red,” she goes by “Sexyy.”
The “Get It Sexyy” rapper, born Janae Nierah Wherry, then explained that she got her stage name from a friend who was trying to help her come up with a moniker at the beginning of her rap career roughly six years ago.
“We was trying to figure out a name for me. It was ‘Red’ but we were like, ‘We gotta put something in front of it in there,'” she said. “To upload my first little YouTube rap video. He was like, ‘What name are you gonna put?’ I’m like, ‘I don’t know’ and we was thinking of stuff. And he said ‘Sexyy Red.’ I’m like ‘I like that.'”
When asked about his first stage name, André revealed that he used to be called “Black Wolf” when he was 16 years old, and that his OutKast partner Big Boy, now 49, went by “Black Dog” at the time.
“We was ‘Two Shades Deep,'” André said of the rap duo’s former name. “We were big Tribe Called Quest fans… The three word names were in at the time, you know what I mean?”
However, a rival singing group at their high school decided to call themselves “Four Shades Deep,” a fateful move that ultimately led them to change their group’s name.
“I was like, ‘They done stole our name,’ and we was kind of like outcasts in high school because we dress different. So yeah, we was like, ‘We just gonna be OutKast,’” he explained.
As far as how André prefers to be addressed, he has a few options available depending on who he’s talking to.
“My homies they call me Stacks, Three, 3 Thou,” he said, adding that Big Boi calls him “Dre.” “It don’t matter.”
Last May, Sexyy told Complex’s Eric Skelton a similar story about her stage name, adding that she had the nickname “Red” before she ever stepped in front of a microphone.
“My name was already Red, because I used to wear red hair and red stuff all the time. That was my name from middle school, because I had red hair ever since then,” Sexyy said at the time.
“When I was trying to upload my song that I had just recorded when I started rapping, I didn’t know what name I should use, and my cameraman was like, ‘What about Sexyy Red, because you’re sexy and your name’s Red?’ I’m like, ‘Okay. I like that.’ We was putting different stuff in front of Red at first, but then when he said Sexyy, I’m like, ‘I like that.’ It fits.”
