OutKast front man Andre "3000" Benjamin obviously loves making music. He wants children to love it, too.

Benjamin has teamed up with Tom Lynch to produce the "Class of 3000," a Cartoon Network show that premieres Friday.

Motivated by the lack of musical education in public schools, the creators of "Class of 3000" hope to show youngsters how fun it is to learn the craft.

"Right now, they're taking music out of schools, and I think that's a key point in life," Benjamin said in a recent interview with the Tribune from Atlanta. "Even in Japan, they make it a point that in school you have to have balance."

Benjamin fronts one of the most successful hip-hop acts in the past decade in OutKast. Songs like "B.O.B." (Bombs over Baghdad) and "Ms. Jackson" helped the album Stankonia win two Grammy awards. Their follow-up album, "Speakerboxxx/The Love Below," became the first ever hip-hop record to win the Grammy for album of the year, thanks to the hit single "Hey Ya!"

"Class of 3000," is not only musically rich but appealing to kids as well.

"I think (children) are the most creative people," Lynch said. "I've often said that a young audience to me is more creative. It's challenging. You've got to bring your A-game to it all the time. Adult dramas and adult comedies, to me, they have a sameness to them. I like that you (have) to stay on your toes a little bit more when you're dealing with young people."

Benjamin stars in "Class of 3000" as Sunny Bridges, a world renowned musician who steps away from the business to try his hand at teaching music at Atlanta's Westley School.

Each week Sunny and his class go on adventures and ultimately bust out the instruments they've learned. Using art direction that resembles an old "Scooby-Doo" or "Fat Albert" cartoon, the show hopes to separate itself from the rest of today's animated offerings.

"We didn't set out to say we want this to look like 'Scooby-Doo' or I want to look like 'Fat Albert,'" Benjamin said. "We were actually going for something new. We wanted it to stand out so we wanted to make sure that our show looked different."

"What we wanted to do was something that wasn't on television right now, or we hadn't seen," Lynch added. "Andre and I both ... took a lot of time on the design process just to make sure we felt comfortable with it and everything always kept landing on the musical sensibility ... and we wanted our characters to have that also."

Benjamin is no stranger to television and film, appearing in the John Travolta film "Be Cool" and starring in "Four Brothers" and this year's "Idlewild."

But it's his voiceover talent that's on display in "Class of 3000," as well as the upcoming feature film "Charlotte's Web." Benjamin welcomes the challenge.

"I kind of just got into it, and it's really acting," he said, adding that a future in voiceover work isn't out of the question. "I don't think about it as just this voice actor. You kind of get in front of the microphone and you go through each scene. People just kind of ... hear my voice and they're like 'well, hey, this will be cool for this show.' If I get an offer, and it's a cool project, I might do it."

Perhaps the most outstanding character in "Class of 3000" is the little drummer known as Li'l D. Never too shy to bust out a rhyme, Li'l D (voiced by comedian Small Fire) is a young boy who is a whiz behind the drum kit.

"(Small Fire's) a girl, and it's funny because when we were in high school she lived on the street behind me and ... she would beat us in basketball," Benjamin said of the comedian. "I look at the episodes now and I ... sit and smile, because she's perfect. She is Li'l D."

Tom Kenny, most famous for providing the voice of SpongeBob Squarepants, lends his talents as the wealthy clarinet-playing Eddie.

Each episode features a song recorded for the show, as well as a guest artist who directs a music video to go along with each song. The concept of having a different art director for each video goes back to the original idea of having a 'toon that stood out from the rest.

"It came from a place of wanting the music videos to pop out," Lynch said. "The more we talked about it, we landed on the idea of bringing in all of these great artists."

Contributing artists include John Kricfalusi, who animated "The Ren and Stimpy Show," and Peter Chung, the man behind the cult-favorite "AEon Flux."

Even though the cartoon hasn't aired yet, there's already talk of a compilation album of tunes from the show.

"Kids, man. Kids love music," Benjamin said. "When I'm working on the music for the show, I'll ride around in the car and I'll have it and (my kids) will request it. They won't know the name of it, but they'll just start singing it. I think parents are always looking for things for their kids to get into that they won't have to worry about what the lyrics are about. Something wholesome for them."

If at the very least "Class of 3000" encourages a child to pick up an instrument, then it'll all be worthwhile, according to Benjamin.

"A kid can just look at Li'l D and see him drumming and say, 'hey mom, I want a drum set,' or they can look at Madison and say, 'man, she's cool. I want to play her violin. Hey mom, get me to a violin!,'" Benjamin said.

"We have all kinds of instruments running through this and I think that's going to be inspiring to kids," Lynch added. "Playing the violin or playing a big trumpet or trombone or something like that."

Douglas can be reached by e-mail at patjessdouglasnetscape.net. Check out "Class of 3000" online at www.classof3000.com and create your own music in the "FunkBox."