André 3000 can’t recall the last time he and Big Boi got together in the studio – but he knows it’s been quite a while.
The enigmatic musician spoke with The Hollywood Reporter in a new interview published on Monday (December 16), where he was asked to pinpoint the last in-person session he had with his OutKast partner, and he simply couldn’t.
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“Man, I don’t know. Who knows?” he said. “Maybe [our 2000 album] Stankonia, [maybe our 2003 double album] Speakerboxxx. Somewhere around there. Even Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, they were actually two separate albums that we put together at the last minute to become Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, so I can’t really remember the last time, but it was too many, many years.”
Last week, André 3000 was asked by Rolling Stone about the possibility of a new album from the iconic duo or at the least, a new tour. It’s looking bleak for both.
“I’ll say maybe 10, 15 years ago, in my mind, I thought an OutKast album would happen,” he said. “I don’t know the future, but I can say that we’re further away from it than we’ve ever been. I think it’s a chemistry thing. 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.’
“It was a great time in life, and our chemistry was at a certain place that was undeniable. And I think the audience sometimes believes that something has to last forever, and I don’t think that. Any kind of art form, I think that’s probably the opposite. It probably should not last forever. 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.”
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He continued: “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.”
As for being open to a farewell tour, Dre said, “No, I doubt that. We did a tour in 2014. And I knew when I was, like, 25, that at a certain age I wouldn’t want to be onstage doing those songs. They required a certain energy. Honestly, I’m not a big fan of looking back. I’m just not. I’m grateful for everything that’s happened, but it was a time. To me, that’s what it is. That was a great time, and I wish y’all were there.”
