André 3000 said he and Big Boi are “further away” from a new OutKast album “than we’ve ever been” while discussing the legendary group’s possible future with Rolling Stone.
During the wide-ranging interview, André spoke at length about his current musical journey, which has taken him far from rap to the worlds of experimental jazz and instrumental atmospherics. (His solo flute album, New Blue Sun, just earned an Album of the Year Grammy nomination.) That’s part of the reason he doesn’t see a new OutKast album on the horizon, something he admitted felt a bit more possible to him “maybe 10, 15 years ago.”
“I think it’s a chemistry thing,” André continued. “We have to be wanting to do it. It’s hard for me to make a rap, period, you know? And sometimes I’m in the belief of, ‘Let things be.’”
He also dismissed the possibility of a farewell tour, noting that OutKast did come together for a massive reunion tour in 2014. He also said that when he was as young as 25 he knew “that at a certain age I wouldn’t want to be onstage doing those songs. They required a certain energy.”
OutKast released six albums during their legendary run during the Nineties and early 2000s, with their final album, Idlewild, arriving in 2006. “It was a great time in life, and our chemistry was at a certain place that was undeniable,” André said. But he also pushed back on the notion that “something has to last forever,” especially in art.
“It probably should not last forever,” he said. “It’s not like a product. In the end, we did give a product, but what made that product was a certain time in both of our lives. It’s not like we’re Coca-Cola, where it’s this formula that you can always press a button and it’ll happen. I think the audience feels that way. But the audience never knows what it takes to make what they’re getting. I can’t blame them for that.”
Speaking on fan entitlement and expectation, André said he recognized there’s often a gap between artist and audience, but didn’t “blame the fan for wanting what they’ve known.” He said he knows that for the rest of his life people will be asking for “one more OutKast album” — but he cautioned against holding one’s breath, in general.
“Even when New Blue Sun came out, people were like, ‘Man, this is his first solo album in 17 years,’” André said. “If a person hasn’t given you a solo album in 17 years, do you really think that was going to happen? I don’t know, maybe I just think differently. I know I wouldn’t be sitting around waiting.”
While André said, generally, he’s not “a big fan of looking back,” he said he was nothing but “grateful for everything” that happened while OutKast was together. “But it was a time. To me, that’s what it is. That was a great time, and I wish y’all were there.”
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