André 3000 releases new Black Lives Matter merch for charity

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Culture

André 3000 has released a new line of t-shirts to benefit the Movement for Black Lives. For the next three days, 13 shirts will be available on his webstore, modeled after jumpsuits he wore on OutKast’s 2014 festival tour. The black long-sleeve designs, which run for $75, feature striking phrases and a red “Not 4 Sale” tag printed on the left sleeve. (Among others, these include: “across cultures, darker people suffer most. why?” and “can one rest in peace & violence?”)

In a note posted to his official site, André addresses the seismic shift of the past two weeks. “Something very important is happening all over the world and it is happening to all of us. How does it make you feel,” he writes. “This is only one piece in the war against systemic racism. BLACK LIVES MATTER… at a minimum.”

He notes that 100% of net proceeds will benefit the Movement for Black Lives, an abolitionist organization dedicated to ending police brutality and racial injustice against Black people. Founded in 2014, the Movement for Black Lives works as a resource for a constellation of Black organizations across the country “to debate and discuss the current political conditions, develop shared assessments of what political interventions were necessary in order to achieve key policy, cultural and political wins,” per its site.

OutKast's reunion tour that hit dozens of festivals and unveiled André's custom jumpsuits was presented as a one-off at the time, and the duo's made no indication that they'll be back out on the road anytime soon. Aside from the stray feature, André 3000 has been almost singularly focused on acting as of late. Last year, he starred alongside Robert Pattinson in Claire Denis’ arty sci-fi film High Life, and appeared on Jason Segel’s AMC series Dispatches From Elsewhere this year.