André 3000 disinterested in new OutKast music or tour: “I’m not a big fan of looking back”

It’s been over a decade since OutKast’s final headlining show, but the prospects of André 3000 reuniting with Big Boi for another reunion appear quite dim. In a new interview, the rapper-turned-flutist has shot down the idea of OutKast making new music or touring any time soon, saying, “I think the audience sometimes believes that something has to last forever, and I don’t think that.”

André made these comments during a recent interview with Rolling Stone, when he was asked about his mindset regarding new OutKast music. “I’ll say maybe 10, 15 years ago, in my mind, I thought an OutKast album would happen,” he explained. “I don’t know the future, but I can say that we’re further away from it than we’ve ever been.”

Continuing, André asserted that “it’s a chemistry thing,” and then alluded to his recent difficulty with rapping in an authentic way. “We have to be wanting to do it,” he said. “It’s hard for me to make a rap, period, you know? And sometimes I’m in the belief of ‘Let things be’ … It’s not like we’re Coca-Cola, where it’s this formula that you can always press a button and it’ll happen.”

Speaking about the possibility of another OutKast tour (err, lack thereof), André explained that the duo’s 2014 reunion tour may have been their last hurrah. “I knew when I was, like, 25, that at a certain age I wouldn’t want to be onstage doing those songs,” he said. “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.”

To all the OutKast fans who feel disappointed, André does have some sympathy, but doesn’t want to get any hopes up. “I don’t blame the fan for wanting what they’ve known,” he said. “I know, for the rest of my life, people will be like, ‘One more OutKast album.’ [But] I try to put myself in the shoes of other people, and I’m like, ‘Man, if we ain’t do an OutKast album in 20 years, do y’all really think it’s going to happen now?’”

To that end, he even sees his Grammy-nominated debut solo album, New Blue Sun, as a relatively miraculous occurrence. “When New Blue Sun came out, people were like, ‘Man, this is his first solo album in 17 years,’” he said. “If a person hasn’t given you a solo album in 17 years, do you really think that was going to happen? I don’t know, maybe I just think differently. I know I wouldn’t be sitting around waiting.”

But other than reflecting back in interviews — like this one, and another he did with Nardwuar earlier this week — André is keeping himself busy with his flute-driven work. Last month, he released a New Blue Sun companion EP dubbed Moving Day, and also contributed a new song to the compilation album, TRAИƧA.

In 2025, New Blue Sun will be up for Album of the Year at the 2025 Grammys. In André’s eyes, just the nomination alone is a feat. “We’ve won already, in our head… because people will now check it out. That was my goal after we recorded it and put it out,” he told Rolling Stone, adding “I do hope they let us perform on the Grammys. That would be killer if we could.”