With their tour heading into Georgia this weekend, Andre 3 Stacks spoke to Billboard Magazine for a rather interesting interview where – among revealing that his upcoming performance as Jimi Hendrix in the upcoming biopic is a dream come true – he basically says their is no new music coming from him and Big Boi. Some choice quotes:
A few short weeks from now, when the tour ends and the movie’s opening recedes into memory, will Benjamin himself simply fade from view again? He’s got no plans for another movie or a solo album — never mind new Outkast music. And just to be clear, here’s how he explains that last one: “There are no plans to do [an Outkast album]. It’s not like some people think: ‘They’re about to drop this album!’ We don’t have, like, one song. There’s no trickery or nothing like that.”
As well:
“I don’t know when we’ll get a new Outkast album,” says Reid, “but I do believe that we will get individual solo albums from André and from Big Boi, and my guess is that it will be before the year ends.”
Don’t be so sure. “I know Big Boi’s [working on his]; I haven’t even started on [mine],” says Benjamin, then adds, sounding his common refrain: “I’ve got to find something I’m excited about.”
“To be clear, there’s no retirement.” And he’s not in conflict with Big Boi: “It’s kind of like growing up in a house with your brother, people expecting y’all to live in the same room and have bunk beds forever,” says Benjamin. “And people try to read into it and say people are beefing. But it’s nothing like that, man. Big Boi will always be my brother and a really important part of my life.”
I almost cried reading this; I was so hype for the new Outkast album.
This issue of Billboard Magazine is out now.
As a bonus, Andre sat down with Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Frannie Kelley NPR Radio to chop it up about music, Atlanta’s hip hop scene, and more. Listen to the 30-minute piece below.
