Today (Nov. 16), GQ published their first-ever “video cover story” with André 3000, who will be releasing his new album, New Blue Sun, this Friday (Nov. 17). During the half-hour exchange, the Atlanta star spoke on his 2014 tour as part of Outkast, his relationship with Big Boi, his approach to recording music and much more.
At some point, his otherworldly abilities as an emcee came up, which was made even more interesting thanks to the title of New Blue Sun‘s opening track, “I swear, I Really Wanted to Make a ‘Rap’ Album but This Is Literally the Way the Wind Blew Me This Time.”
“I try all the time,” he said when asked about making rhymes in the studio. “I’m open to producers now, the young producers, and I get beats all the time. And people send me songs to get on remixes and stuff like that, but I don’t be knowing what to talk about most of the time.” Notably, his most recent rap appearance was on Killer Mike’s MICHAEL standout “SCIENTISTS & ENGINEERS.”
In another part of the feature, André admitted that he hadn’t been able to find the feeling needed to create genuine hip hop. “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,” he explained. “It feels inauthentic for me to rap because I don’t have anything to talk about in that way. I’m 48 years old.”
He continued, “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 gotta go get a colonoscopy.’ What do you rap about? ‘My eyesight is going bad’… My goal is, I wanna connect. I’m not talking about nothing I can’t connect with. It’s no use.”