André 3000 Says ‘Sometimes It Feels Inauthentic’ As He Explains Why He Stepped Away From Rap: ‘I Don’t Have Anything To Talk About In That Way’

November 16, 2023 by Kay Johnson in Music with 0 Comments

André 3000

André 3000 Says ‘Sometimes It Feels Inauthentic’ As He Explains Why He Stepped Away From Rap: ‘I Don’t Have Anything To Talk About In That Way’

Hip-hop star André 3000 opened up about giving up his career as a rapper.

During a recent cover interview, the “Hey Ya” artist spoke about his journey creating his forthcoming album and shared why the project is so different from his previous work.

André 3000, real name André Benjamin, 48, explained that he feels he’s grown out of many of the things he used to talk about as a rapper. Admitting that he’s repeatedly tried to sit and write, he stated:

“I’ve worked with some of the newest, freshest, youngest, and old-school producers. I get beats all the time. I try to write all the time…when it came to figuring out what we would do creatively…within Outkast like, there was a certain point where I just didn’t know where else to go,”

“People think I’m sitting on raps, I ain’t got no raps like that… like: ‘I gotta go get a colonoscopy.’ What do you rap about? ‘My eyesight is going bad?’”

André 3000 gets candid about how the type of music you make changes as you get older. Jump into our full interview with… pic.twitter.com/I0ZwTQlebk

— GQ Magazine (@GQMagazine) November 16, 2023

He continued:

“Even now people think, Oh, man, he’s just sitting on raps, or he’s just holding these raps hostage. I ain’t got no raps like that….sometimes it feels inauthentic for me to rap because I don’t have anything to talk about in that way. I’m 48 years old. And not to say that age is a thing that dictates what you rap about, but in a way it does. And things that happen in my life, like, what are you talking about? ‘I got to go get a colonoscopy.’ What are you rapping about? ‘My eyesight is going bad.’ You can find cool ways to say it, but…”

Elsewhere in the interview, the entertainer also discussed his decision not to go full throttle in promoting his new album, which reportedly is a Jazz piece that features no lyrics. Being 1/2 of the iconic music duo Outkast, André admitted that he thought about whether or not he wanted to step back into the limelight. In case you’re unfamiliar the group, which also consisted of rapper Big Boi, achieved notable success throughout their career, selling more than 20 million albums and earning 6 Grammys during their time performing together.

Outkast is also widely regarded as one of the greatest hip-hop duos of all time and is credited as being a driving force in bringing southern hip-hop mainstream. With great achievement, however, comes great notoriety. Ultimately, André said he has no desire to have fame disrupt the peace of his life. He continued during the interview:

“I remember a couple weeks ago talking to my manager and publicist, I really had to ask myself, ‘Do you want to possibly be famous again? Do you want to turn it up again?’…I was like, ‘ugh. Well I’ll just put the record out and don’t do any press for it’…but then it’s kind of a disservice to the music”