“A lot of these projects where a celebrity of his stature is involved, people think he’s just putting his name on, but he’s involved with every story idea with me, every design idea, every music video idea. He does his own voice too. It wasn’t a vanity project for him — he’s showing up for it, not just slacking off.”

In fact, André “3000” Benjamin’s personal stake in Class of 3000 is unmistakable. “It’s kind of like a rebel thing,” he says. “I guess it’s the Ted Turner spirit in me. They told Ted he could never do it in the South, and look at what he’s done.

“I always like to prove people wrong, man. We’ve seen New York streets, we’ve seen L.A. streets, but there’s never been a show from here. This whole Cartoon Network opportunity came to me — I wasn’t sitting at home saying, ‘I want to do an animated show’ — it organically came together.”

Lynch and Benjamin’s greatest coup is lining up star “guest art directors,” including Ren & Stimpy’s John Kricfalusi (left) and Aeon Flux creator Peter Chung to create a music video sequence that is featured in each

Benjamin goes on to reveal another aspect to his hopes for the series: “There’s a kind of ‘save the music’ spirit in the show. Right now they’re taking music programs out of schools, and I think music’s a key part of life. As a kid, you have so many influences. A kid can look at Li’l D drumming and say, ‘Mom, I want a drum set,’ or look at Madison and say, ‘Man, she’s cool. I want to play her violin. Hey mom, get me a violin!’ I think kids are going to be impressed that normal kids they’d want to hang out with are playing the harp, the violin, a big trumpet or something like that. I think that’s going to be inspiring to them.

“So it’s not all gags and funny, even though that’s a huge part of what we do. But I think people will be able to feel the realness in it, too. One of my main goals in the show is to have kids grow up and when they’re 25, 30 years old. think back, “Man, do you remember when Class of 3000 was on? Do you remember this song?”

Joe Strike is a regular contributor to AWN. His animation articles also appear in the NY Daily News and the New York Press.