Column: A three's company collaboration

Last week, Converse leaked a 30-second preview of “Do Ya Thing,” a song it is sponsoring.

If you are like me, you assumed, “A shoe company sponsoring musicians? Let’s get ready to hear some awful hip-hop or ‘alternative’ pop rock.”

But then I saw the names of the collaborating musicians, and my opinion quickly changed.

The single features Damon Albarn of the Gorillaz, James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem and André 3000 of Outkast. That’s right. Whether or not you hold these three artists in as high regard as I do, you will most likely agree with me on one platform: These collaborators and their song will make you dance.

“Do Ya Thang” is the newest edition to Converse’s series “Three Artists. One Song.”

Previously, the company released the track “All Summer” featuring Kid Cudi, Rostam Batmanglij of Vampire Weekend and Best Coast. Those names might be newer to the music world than Albarn, Murphy and André 3000, but they lack the veteran talent that the “Do Ya Thing” crew holds. The Gorillaz, LCD Soundsystem and Outkast have respectively created some of the best albums in the past two decades.

The Gorillaz is a groundbreaking U.K. band, in part because of its members’ personas as cartoon characters and its innovative electronic music.

James Murphy announced his retirement from LCD Soundsystem last year, and it is a relief to see he is continuing to create music. Murphy’s extreme success with critically-acclaimed dance punk and electronica music has set him apart from the rest of the mainstream world.

André 3000 has achieved a similar level of critical fame and popularity in the hip-hop realm. As the duo Outkast, which is one of my favorite bands, André 3000 and Big Boi created “Speakerboxxx/The Love Below,” one of the best hip-hop albums of the 2000s.

So, what do we get when these three musicians — who specialize as disc jockeys, rappers, producers, entertainers and electronic masterminds — come together?

Something great.

The 30-second preview alone will get your toes tapping and booty shaking. What holds so much promise for the song is the marriage of the three bands’ sounds.

They aren’t trying to mix metal with classical music, and on a lesser scale, they aren’t trying to combine music that inherently will not sound good together. LCD Soundsystem, the Gorillaz and André 3000 are known for electronic, hip-hop, pop and altogether great dance music. Putting these three heads together to work on a song only makes sense.

“Do Ya Thing” will be released in full, for free, this Thursday.

Although this is all part of a marketing scheme for Converse, if it means having some of the best musicians of our generation make music together, then the company can brainwash me silly with its campaigns. So, get your computers ready to download, but more importantly, go get your dancing shoes on.