Rapper Andre 3000 has been on tour with Big Boi as Outkast this year and says he is getting too old for rap. Recently the rapper says he gets nothing out of rap these days.
“I remember, at like 25, saying, ‘I don’t want to be a 40-year-old rapper,'” 3000 tells Jon Caramanica. “I’m 39 now, and I’m still standing by that. I’m such a fan that I don’t want to infiltrate it with old blood.
“Honestly, I never planned to go onstage again in that way,” he says. “If I feel like I’m getting to a place where it’s mimicking or a caricature, I just want to move on. But I felt like: Let me do it now ’cause these kids [in the audience], it feels good to know that they’re happy. I really don’t actually get anything from performing. I feel good in being able to look at Big Boi and say, ‘Hey, man, we did it.’ Big Boi’s got these great records on his own, but this means something else for him…I think people could see it at Coachella, the very first show. It was foreign. My head wasn’t there. I kind of fluffed through rehearsals. A few hours before the Coachella show, I get a message that Prince and Paul McCartney are going to be there. My spirit is not right, and idols are standing side-stage, so as the show started, I’m bummed. This is horrible. In my mind I was already gone to my hotel room halfway through. So Prince called a couple days after. It was my first time actually talking to Prince. He said, ‘When you come back, people want to be wowed. And what’s the best way to wow people? Just give them the hits.’ I’m explaining to him that I really didn’t want to do it. He said: ‘I’ve been there. I’ve tried to do other things. After you give them the hits, then you can do whatever.”
Despite how he feels about the music industry Andre still wants to create one last album. He is not sure if it will feature him rapping or singing but he knows he wants it completed.
“I know this may sound morbid, but I was like, if I were to die today, I have all these half-songs on my hard drive, and I don’t want that,” he says.
Andre has also kept himself busy by working on toher projects like his Jimi Hendrix film called “Jimi: All Is By My Side, according to the rapper this project saved his life.
“I was in a not-so-great space, just in a dark place every day,” Andre says. “I needed something to focus on to get me out of my depression and rut. Sometimes, when you’re alone, you can let yourself go. I knew if I got on a train with a lot of different people, then I couldn’t let them down.”
Are you ready for Andre 3000 to leave the rap game? Or could the hip-hop industry survive without 3 stacks?
Follow us on Twitter @Hiphopenquirer
