In a recent interview with Complex, Andre 3000 of duo Outkast seemed to extinguish all hope of fans ever receiving a reunion album from him and partner Big Boi.
“It’s really just an excitement thing, and where I am in life. I kind of like not being a part of [rap], now that I’ve done it,” 3 Stacks told the publication. “As I get older, I start to see myself move more back from it—the hustle and bustle of putting out an album, the pressure of being in the studio trying to come up with something. Now it’s more like a hobby for me, so I don’t think about it in that way. Even with Outkast — if we never do another album, I’m totally fine with that.”
In an apparent contrast, Andre’s sentiments are a bit more laissez-faire than Big Boi, who has often entertained the idea of a possible reunion.
For Dre, however, we can see where his sentiments arise. Out of the two, Big Boi has been the most active, dropping off his third solo album, Boomiverse, in June of this year while the most we’ve seen from Andre 3000 have been a few guest appearances every now and then.
READ MORE: BIG BOI REVEALS AN OUTKAST-ATCQ ALBUM WAS IN THE WORKS
“Rapping is like being a boxer. No matter how great you are or were at a certain time, the older you get, the slower you get—I don’t care who you are. And I can feel that coming on,” the 42-year old explained. “There’s always a new wave of artists, and sometimes I’m just like, ‘I’m good. I’ll let the young guys do it.’ And whenever they reach out and say, ‘Hey, let’s try something,’ I’m with helping them. I’m doing it more for them than for my own self.”
The last we heard from ‘Kast in album form was on 2006’s Idlewild, and the one time we ever had solid ground to truly speculate of a reunion came back in 2014 when the two joined each other onstage for a festival tour.
Unfortunately, it seems that these speculations will only continue to live on as rumors. A sad revelation for Hip-Hop, indeed.