It’s been years since the rap legend released new music. Now, on his own creative terms, he’s unveiling his first solo project—and talking candidly about where he’s been, how he’s changed, and why he made a record that nobody could have expected.
Director: Noel Howard
Director of Photography: Carter Ross
Editor: Phil Ceconi
Talent: Andre 3000; Zach Baron
Producer: Sam Dennis
Senior Producer: Annee Elliot
Line Producer: Jen Santos
Production Manager: Andressa Pelachi; Kevin Balash
Talent Booker: Dana Mathews; Ernesto Macias
Camera Operator: John Weselcouch
Assistant Camera: Caroline Vazquez; Raquel Wajner
Gaffer: Jon Corum
Grip: Matt Krueger; Dominik Czaczyk
Sound Mixer: Kari Barber
Production Assistant: Fernando Barajas; Masana Cornish; Brock Spitaels; Paul Draper; Robby Fiore; Micky Hohl
Andre Groomer: Iman Thomas
Zach Groomer: Vanessa Rene
Production Designer: Cedar Jocks
Post Production Supervisor: Rachael Knight
Post Production Coordinator: Ian Bryant
Supervising Editor: Rob Lombardi
Assistant Editor: Billy Ward
Designer: Michael Houtz
Director: Noel Howard
Director of Photography: Carter Ross
Editor: Phil Ceconi
Talent: Andre 3000; Zach Baron
Producer: Sam Dennis
Senior Producer: Annee Elliot
Line Producer: Jen Santos
Production Manager: Andressa Pelachi; Kevin Balash
Talent Booker: Dana Mathews; Ernesto Macias
Camera Operator: John Weselcouch
Assistant Camera: Caroline Vazquez; Raquel Wajner
Gaffer: Jon Corum
Grip: Matt Krueger; Dominik Czaczyk
Sound Mixer: Kari Barber
Production Assistant: Fernando Barajas; Masana Cornish; Brock Spitaels; Paul Draper; Robby Fiore; Micky Hohl
Andre Groomer: Iman Thomas
Zach Groomer: Vanessa Rene
Production Designer: Cedar Jocks
Post Production Supervisor: Rachael Knight
Post Production Coordinator: Ian Bryant
Supervising Editor: Rob Lombardi
Assistant Editor: Billy Ward
Designer: Michael Houtz
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00 (upbeat flute music)
00:03 Like I like seasoned, seasoned food.
00:14 Like I hate bland food.
00:15 - Okay.
00:16 - So I season my clothes a lot.
00:17 (upbeat flute music)
00:20 One of my homies told me, like after I finished "Hey Ya"
00:25 and I played it for him, he said,
00:27 "Man, if you put that out, man, your career is over."
00:30 (laughing)
00:32 (upbeat flute music)
00:35 That's like one of the coolest things about the recording.
00:42 Like I'm actually listening to myself
00:44 be a baby at something, you know,
00:46 be a baby at this new machine that I've never touched.
00:49 (upbeat flute music)
00:52 (upbeat flute music)
00:55 This feels like 80s doctor's office.
01:03 (laughing)
01:05 - I think it's cozier than that.
01:07 - Psychiatrist's office.
01:08 - Psychiatrist's office, there we go.
01:09 (upbeat flute music)
01:12 That's amazing, man.
01:17 - Oh, thank you, man.
01:18 (upbeat flute music)
01:22 - What's up, man?
01:23 - What's up?
01:24 - Bring it in, bring it in.
01:25 I like the shirt.
01:26 - Oh, thank you, thank you very much.
01:27 - Very cool.
01:27 - Yeah, you know, stripes.
01:29 - Yeah.
01:30 - Just trying to be like you.
01:31 - It's stripe time.
01:32 - Just trying to be like you.
01:33 - Get your stripes, yeah, yeah.
01:34 - We should make it clear
01:35 that you actually use this laundromat.
01:37 - Yeah, yeah, this is a laundromat not too far from my house.
01:40 - How'd you end up out here?
01:41 - I was making a move from New York
01:44 and it was really supposed to be like a six month
01:48 kind of, you know, reset.
01:51 You know, come to California, get some sun.
01:53 Hey.
01:54 - Hey.
01:56 What is that?
01:57 - I got it from a Ramsey's, the great museum in San Fran.
02:00 We went to this thing and I bought this just as a--
02:03 - And now he's just the laundry guard.
02:05 - He hangs out, like I sit him in the window sill of my car.
02:09 Like me and my son kind of like,
02:10 and I think seven may have put like just a plain rubber ducky
02:13 and then when I saw this one, I was like, yeah.
02:15 - That's beautiful.
02:16 - We're gonna freak it, like that's the Egyptian.
02:17 - Yeah, yeah, yeah.
02:18 - So yeah, I kind of--
02:19 - And it's like you're sun a little bit with you too.
02:20 - Yeah.
02:21 - I think people would be surprised to know
02:24 that you go to a laundromat to do your laundry.
02:27 - Yeah, but only for that kind of convenient thing.
02:29 And it's fun for me because it gives me a chance
02:33 to kind of, to be out in the world.
02:35 And like when I'm putting clothes in the dryer,
02:39 I usually go out in the alley and practice.
02:41 You know, I play my instrument out in the alley
02:43 and it's just something to do
02:44 to get out in the sun a little bit.
02:46 - What is important about being out in the world?
02:48 - Meeting people, like I met this old lady here,
02:52 she was from Vienna.
02:54 I had my bass clarinet at the time
02:55 and I was kind of playing and she says,
02:58 your music, the music that you're playing,
03:00 it reminds me of my old country.
03:02 We sparked up like a real cool friendship
03:04 and she was like, if you come here next Saturday,
03:06 I'll bring you all of my old record collection
03:09 of classical music from Vienna.
03:11 And she told me a time to meet her,
03:12 but unfortunately I was late.
03:14 And so when I came, she wasn't around.
03:17 So I hadn't seen her, so I'm hoping she's still alive.
03:22 - Do people clock that it's you when you're here?
03:25 - Nah, she didn't know who I was.
03:26 It's kind of like, some people may recognize me,
03:29 like, oh man, that's cool.
03:30 But it's not like crazy.
03:32 Like, I kind of like what my life is
03:34 where I can come and do this.
03:36 You know what I mean?
03:37 Like a lot of my contemporaries,
03:39 like I kind of feel bad for them,
03:41 because we got children and like sometimes,
03:43 like some of these people can't even go out
03:45 without having paparazzi follow them.
03:47 And it's like, that's a whack ass life, man.
03:50 Like, I kind of like some normalcy,
03:52 even though it's not normal, but I came from that.
03:55 Like I used to hang out at, you know, the laundromat,
03:58 like when we didn't have a wash and dry at our house,
04:01 my mom worked at the beauty salon.
04:02 So it was like, I'm in these places,
04:04 social kind of situation, you know?
04:06 - Yeah, when you say normalcy, what do you mean by that?
04:09 - Walk with your family and not have people follow you
04:11 and chase you and you can't take your kid to the park
04:15 and play because people will follow you.
04:18 - Was your life ever like that?
04:19 - At certain times, I think maybe at the height of OutKast,
04:24 over like years of like letting it simmer a little bit
04:27 and I'm older now, so a lot of people,
04:29 they see me like, you look like him,
04:31 but nah, nah, that ain't 3000.
04:32 So it's like.
04:33 - It's funny 'cause it's like when you're 19,
04:36 you're probably working towards like anything but normal.
04:38 You know, you're working towards like,
04:40 oh, let's be successful, let's see where this can go.
04:43 - Exactly.
04:44 - And then you spend the back end of it
04:46 trying to work your way back to the.
04:47 - There's a life, you want what you want
04:48 till you don't want it.
04:49 Me and Big Boy used to literally pray every night,
04:52 Lord, really, we just wanna be good rappers.
04:54 That was our prayer, it was called like a rapper's prayer.
04:58 Lord, we really just wanna be good rappers.
04:59 And we did that and it's kind of like,
05:01 now we're seeing that it's happened.
05:03 I love that it's happened, like I don't regret any of that,
05:06 but it's kind of like now that I'm at a certain level,
05:10 I miss certain things about normalcy
05:12 and like I'm an only child,
05:14 so I've always kind of been to myself anyway.
05:16 I kind of like my solitary kind of chill life.
05:20 And I think you do have a choice.
05:22 - But you could still live the other way if you wanted to.
05:24 Are you ever like tempted to like.
05:26 - That's the problem, the balance.
05:29 Like I do have an urge because I wanna create things.
05:32 Like I'm happiest when I'm creating things.
05:34 And I was talking to my manager and publicist,
05:36 I had to really ask myself,
05:37 do you wanna possibly be famous again?
05:40 Like, do you wanna turn it up again?
05:43 And I was like, well, I'll just put the record out
05:45 and just don't do any press for it or anything like that.
05:48 But then it's kind of a disservice to the music
05:50 'cause I want people to like check it out.
05:51 I want people to hear it.
05:52 I had to find some balance.
05:54 (flute music)
05:57 - We've been a little coy.
06:04 You have a whole flute album now.
06:06 - I wouldn't call it a flute album.
06:08 It's an album, but I am playing wind instruments.
06:11 Sometimes it's native flutes.
06:13 Sometimes it's digital wind instruments,
06:15 which I actually discovered right before we started
06:18 recording the album.
06:19 Some of the song, what you're hearing,
06:20 you're hearing me go through patches on the instrument
06:23 and you hear me figuring the instrument out.
06:26 So it's new, which I thought was really cool.
06:29 To me, that's like one of the coolest things
06:31 about the recording.
06:31 Like I'm actually listening to myself
06:34 be a baby at something, you know,
06:36 be a baby at this new machine that I've never touched.
06:39 - A document of this exists.
06:40 - Yes. - It has a name.
06:41 - Yes, New Blue Sun.
06:43 New Blue Sun is the album.
06:44 - Many people will ask why a Woodwind album?
06:47 - I ask myself, why anything?
06:49 Like why did we record these albums before in my career?
06:54 Like it's just kind of those other things that came,
06:57 you know, I would say it's probably this felt more real
07:02 and authentic to me.
07:03 Like, 'cause I don't stop trying things.
07:06 Like I always try, you know, recordings
07:08 and I try vocal things.
07:11 I even try to jot down ideas and lyrics here and there,
07:14 but none of that just, none of that excited me.
07:18 You know, it always, it kind of felt like,
07:20 like I'm trying to do a thing, you know what I mean?
07:23 And I don't like when I'm trying to do a thing.
07:25 It just felt inauthentic.
07:26 And this felt like the realest I could be at the time.
07:29 - People who like pay close attention know
07:31 that you're creating all the time.
07:33 This is the first thing though,
07:34 that actually is making out in the world.
07:36 - I've actually played some wind things
07:38 that I've put out in the world
07:39 that I call myself another name
07:41 under different artists that are out there that,
07:44 you know, I was just kind of testing it out in a way.
07:47 - Wait, so you have anonymous wind recordings
07:49 out there already?
07:49 - Yes. - Okay.
07:50 - Yes, from known artists.
07:52 - Really? - And they've been cool
07:53 about keeping it secret.
07:54 Yeah, I wasn't sure how to present the wind thing
07:57 because I would just be on the street and play.
07:59 'Cause I play like in nature a lot.
08:01 I just play hiking, walking in the city, wherever.
08:05 And what started to happen was people started
08:07 kind of like filming me on their cell phones
08:09 and posting it and making beats out of it,
08:11 which is cool to me.
08:12 But yeah, I was trying to find a way,
08:15 how can I share my love for discovering
08:18 this wind instrument with more people?
08:20 Like where it's just not this kind of,
08:22 where's Waldo, there's this dude playing kind of thing.
08:25 So in approaching, I knew I wanted to do a wind-based album,
08:31 but I didn't really know what I wanted to sound like.
08:33 I had influences, I had ideas,
08:35 and I kept this trend. - What were the influences?
08:37 - Influences ranging from Coltrane to Philip Glass
08:42 to Steve Reich.
08:44 - It's a very intimate record, I've heard it.
08:46 It's like getting a very luxurious and expensive,
08:50 but very tender mental massage.
08:53 - Nice, I'll take it.
08:54 I describe it as just like pure breathing and living.
08:58 And the way it was recorded,
09:00 it was all improv and spontaneous.
09:02 So we were living it.
09:03 What you hear on the record is how we heard it
09:05 as we were doing it.
09:06 It wasn't planned, it wasn't like,
09:07 hey, we're gonna do this, we're gonna do these chords,
09:09 and we're gonna, we only talked about feeling, you know?
09:13 - Are you apprehensive?
09:18 - Very, very apprehensive.
09:20 - Do you feel like that played into decisions
09:23 you made about Outkast too?
09:25 - I think just in general,
09:27 when it came to figuring out what we would do creatively
09:30 and where my creative juice is coming from within Outkast,
09:34 like there was a certain point
09:36 where I just didn't know where else to go.
09:38 You know, I didn't, like even now,
09:40 like people think, oh man, he's just sitting on raps
09:44 or like he's just holding or holding these raps hostage.
09:47 Like, I ain't got no raps like that.
09:49 Like it's, it actually feels,
09:51 sometimes it feels inauthentic for me to rap
09:54 because I don't have anything to talk about
09:57 in that way, like I'm 48 years old.
09:59 And not to say that age is a thing
10:02 that dictates what you rap about, but in a way it does.
10:06 And like the things that happened in my life,
10:08 like what are you talking,
10:09 like I gotta go get a colonoscopy.
10:11 Like, what are you, like, what do you rap about?
10:14 You know what I mean?
10:15 Like my eyesight, my eyesight is going bad.
10:17 Like.
10:18 - But you're not, you're not just any rapper.
10:20 Like you're a top five, top, you know, to many people.
10:24 To me, it's like, you're basically being like,
10:25 I have a very beautiful sports car in the garage,
10:28 but I choose never to drive it, you know?
10:31 Which is, which is your talent.
10:33 - Talent is one thing, but honestly it's,
10:35 I think timing and momentum is more important than talent
10:39 and the energy of it.
10:40 Like talent, it's a lot of people with talent.
10:42 And we're seeing that now.
10:43 Like there's so many dope people on the internet
10:45 like that are just raw, but it's your timing,
10:47 is what you're talking about.
10:49 Is if you're catching the zeitgeist
10:51 of what's happening in the world.
10:53 And like, my goal is I want to connect.
10:56 I'm not talking about nothing that I can't connect with.
10:59 And it.
11:00 - Have you tried?
11:01 - It's no, it's no use.
11:02 Yeah, I try all the time.
11:03 Like I'm open to producers now, like the young producers
11:07 and I get beats all the time.
11:08 Like, and people send me songs, like to get on remixes
11:13 and stuff like that.
11:13 But I don't be knowing what to talk about
11:15 most of the time, you know?
11:17 - Do you think that's about expectations
11:19 or lack of self-belief?
11:21 Like where do you think that comes from?
11:22 - Like I think you're your best and worst critic
11:25 and I only work on feeling.
11:28 Feeling is my only barometer of what I'm doing.
11:30 Like I don't feel like I'm the best rapper.
11:32 I don't feel like I'm the best producer.
11:33 I don't feel like I'm the best singer, actor, none of that.
11:36 It's just for me, my gauge is feeling.
11:39 And that's always been that way, even within OutKast.
11:41 Like if it felt right,
11:43 I ain't care what other people thought.
11:45 If it felt right, it was like,
11:46 I ain't going to argue with what it feel like.
11:48 And if it don't feel right to me, which it hasn't in a while,
11:51 like when it comes to rapping or vocal type of music,
11:56 I don't do it.
11:57 The song is more important.
11:58 The music is more important.
12:00 - I was looking at the song titles.
12:02 I wanted to ask you about a few.
12:03 - Yeah, for sure.
12:04 - The first song is called,
12:06 "I Swear I Really Wanted to Make a Rap Album."
12:09 Rap in quotation marks.
12:11 But this is literally the way the wind blew me this time.
12:14 - In my mind, I would love to make a rap album.
12:16 Like I would love to make a rap album,
12:19 but this is what came at this time.
12:21 And it felt authentic.
12:22 - One of the things that's so great about you as a rapper
12:25 is the directness and the way that you'll just,
12:28 you would talk about your life.
12:29 So when you say yesterday,
12:30 I don't know what to talk about now.
12:31 I was like, how is that possible?
12:33 - I was once in the studio with a artist,
12:36 a younger artist, Tyler Creator.
12:38 And we were talking about rapping as you're old.
12:42 And I was kind of telling Tyler,
12:44 I was like, man, I just don't know what,
12:45 like I'd rather write a book or something at this point.
12:48 Like, I don't know, like you got to do it.
12:50 And I was like, why?
12:51 Like, because it shows us what we can do
12:53 when we get to that age.
12:54 But to make it into a entertaining song
12:58 to where it's just not self-serving,
13:00 or it's not just like,
13:02 there's a part of entertaining someone else too.
13:05 I know I joked about you having to go get a colonoscopy
13:07 and all this kind of stuff.
13:08 And that's a real thing in my life,
13:09 but to make that into a song or--
13:12 - Why not?
13:13 - Yeah, of course.
13:14 But I got to make it into a song that feels good as a song.
13:17 - But your track record as making people feel good
13:20 through song is--
13:20 - Track record is one thing,
13:22 the right now is a whole another.
13:24 I can't put anything else out in the world
13:25 if I'm not excited about it,
13:26 'cause how can I expect you to be excited about it?
13:29 How can I expect you to think, oh, this is raw?
13:31 Oh, this is fresh?
13:32 I don't feel that way.
13:33 Like, what's that saying that drug addicts say?
13:36 They say, well, the longer I'm out of it,
13:38 the better chances I have of staying out of it.
13:40 (laughs)
13:41 - That's not what America wants to hear.
13:43 - No, I understand, but it feels that way.
13:45 Like, as I keep going, like, it's like,
13:48 you keep slowing down too.
13:49 Like, people don't understand
13:51 that there's a physicalness to rapping.
13:54 I always say it's like being a boxer.
13:56 Like, you got to think it's actually like being a boxer.
13:57 - But don't you think the genre's big enough
13:58 to encompass all of that?
14:00 - Look at the greatest boxers now.
14:02 What do they do?
14:02 They do exhibition fights every now and then,
14:05 but they're not stepping in the ring ring.
14:07 You know what I mean?
14:08 - But what if rapping wasn't boxing?
14:09 What if it was something else entirely?
14:10 - But it is, though.
14:11 That's what I'm saying.
14:12 It is partly physical, partly mental.
14:13 When boxers, when they're about to fight,
14:15 they have to train.
14:16 So if I were to make a rap album,
14:18 the best thing I could probably do
14:19 is just be around rappers.
14:20 You know what I mean?
14:21 - But that's not part of your life right now, really?
14:22 - Yeah, it's not even like,
14:23 I don't even like going to the studio
14:25 and just hanging out with niggas smoking all day.
14:27 You know, I just don't.
14:29 - It's gotta be weird to have all that energy
14:30 directed toward you.
14:32 People coming up to you on the street or whatever
14:34 and be like, "Do this, do this, do this."
14:35 And you're like, "I'm not gonna do it."
14:37 - I wish I could answer them.
14:38 - That's a lot of cosmic pressure.
14:40 It's like being brought to bear on you.
14:41 - It is, it is.
14:42 And that's, to that point, that title, the first song,
14:46 I'm kinda addressing it in a way.
14:49 - Yeah, I think so.
14:51 - Yeah.
14:51 For me, washing is kinda like cooking.
14:58 I like seasoned, seasoned food.
15:00 I hate bland food, so I season my clothes a lot.
15:03 - We're in our uniform era, is that right?
15:06 - Yeah, I guess you definitely can call it a uniform.
15:09 It's easy for me.
15:10 It's kinda like, even when I look around now
15:12 and I look at kinda what's happening in the world,
15:15 everybody turned up in the late '90s and 2000s.
15:18 Our contemporaries were looking at us crazy,
15:21 like, "Who are y'all?
15:21 "Like, y'all are from another planet."
15:23 Now the planet is here.
15:25 You know, like all the kids are turned up,
15:28 you know what I mean?
15:29 Which is beautiful.
15:30 I just love this workwear kind of stripes
15:33 and these overalls, they're very comfortable.
15:35 I call 'em like adult baby clothes.
15:37 You just feel like really comfortable and snug
15:39 and you have places to put your hands.
15:42 - This is yours, these overalls.
15:45 - Yeah.
15:45 - What is the brand called?
15:47 - From now on, they will have no choice
15:48 but to call us The Ants.
15:50 This is a workwear brand, for sure.
15:52 And when you look at ants, they're always working.
15:55 I'm at the stage where I'm loving to do things
15:58 with my hands, you know?
15:59 And things that I can do when I'm 75 years old
16:02 or when I'm 80 years old.
16:03 - And that outfit reflects that.
16:04 - Yeah, I mean, I don't think about clothing.
16:07 Like, I'm at work.
16:09 I'm actually drawing or painting in these.
16:11 I still love it that the young kids,
16:13 they'll come up like, "Oh man, your fit is fresh."
16:15 Like, "Oh, okay, thank you, man."
16:17 - Do you feel like the uniform is a reminder
16:19 to yourself about the differences between now
16:23 and say, like, the year 2000?
16:24 - It's actually the opposite.
16:25 It's not a reminder at all.
16:26 It's a forgetting.
16:27 I don't have time to think about clothing.
16:29 Some people, like, go into fashion, fashion.
16:32 Like, I wanna be free and do all these things.
16:34 There's a certain freedom in that, too.
16:36 But there's also a freedom in not having
16:38 to think about it at all.
16:41 - What do you do while you wait,
16:42 usually when you're here?
16:44 - I usually go in the alley and I play.
16:47 - I don't mean to be forward or ask for the art for free,
16:50 but could we do that?
16:52 - I'm at a point now, like, if somebody in the street
16:53 were to ask me, like, "Man, could you rap?
16:57 "Like, could you say something?"
16:58 I'd feel weird.
16:59 I like, like, I have to, like, get my mind, like,
17:01 you have to get in rap mind or rap mode.
17:04 But then people ask me, "Hey, can you play?"
17:05 I'm like, "Yeah, let's go.
17:06 "Yeah, let's play." - Let's go.
17:08 - Yeah, let's go.
17:10 Yeah.
17:11 (sad music)
17:15 (sad music)
17:17 (sad music)
17:19 (sad music)
17:22 (sad music)
17:24 (sad music)
17:34 (sad music)
17:43 (sad music)
17:51 (sad music)
17:54 - That's amazing, man.
17:57 - Ah, thank you.
17:58 I'm just kind of feeling what's happening at the time,
18:00 so I'm just kind of making it up as it goes.
18:02 Like, even the new album was completely improv'd
18:05 and made up.
18:06 Just a discovery path every time.
18:09 So you never know what patterns you will play,
18:11 you never know what melodies you're gonna play.
18:13 You're on the tightrope at that point,
18:15 so it's like, you gotta do something.
18:16 It's very interesting that I've never been
18:18 a rap freestyler.
18:20 I just think too much to freestyle.
18:22 - But this is somehow accessing a different part
18:24 of the brain.
18:25 - Yeah, I'm not thinking at all.
18:26 Listening more than anything,
18:27 like listening and responding.
18:29 So when I started playing, it was kind of a thing,
18:32 like, if you didn't know of my history,
18:34 if you didn't know of album sales,
18:36 if you didn't know of records, you know,
18:40 accolades, anything, I was getting real responses
18:43 from people that didn't.
18:44 Like, actually, people would come up and give me money.
18:47 Like, yeah.
18:48 - Are you aware of the clips of you playing your flute
18:51 various places?
18:52 - I became aware of it,
18:53 and it kind of made me more self-conscious
18:54 because it became kind of like a game.
18:56 I remember I was in Philadelphia,
18:58 and someone came up and they was like,
18:59 "You know it's like a game now."
19:01 Like, I asked the person, they was like,
19:02 "You know, we try to spot you."
19:04 And he told me, I was like,
19:05 "Oh, that's kind of weird now."
19:07 You know, 'cause at first it was kind of like
19:08 I would just walk for miles and miles and play
19:12 and just kind of duck off in places,
19:14 but now it's like, it's become a thing.
19:16 - Being famous is just, people don't want to say it.
19:19 It is a great blessing.
19:20 Like, I'm actually blessed to be able to create
19:22 in front of people and get ideas off.
19:24 That's the biggest blessing out of being famous.
19:26 But being famous really sucks, man.
19:27 Like, it's so unhuman.
19:30 Like, I can't remember his name,
19:31 but there was this classical pianist that said
19:33 it's actually unnatural and actually detrimental
19:36 to a human to have that much admiration
19:38 because it actually changes the way you think.
19:41 It changes the way you move, you know?
19:43 - There's a hundred people on the planet Earth
19:45 who are like as famous as you at one point.
19:47 You know, like the experience that you've had and know,
19:51 very few people know.
19:52 You're like an astronaut in that sense, you know?
19:54 - I'm coming to grips with it, I think,
19:56 because I'm older now.
19:57 Like, I really see it as I'm just being used for something.
20:01 You know what I mean?
20:02 And I can just, I'm happy that I'm being used
20:05 in the greatest scheme.
20:06 Like, I kind of have looked at my whole career
20:08 and looked at where I am now.
20:10 And I kind of feel like I'm a catalyst kind of artist
20:12 where I'll do a thing that I naturally do.
20:15 And then, you know, people see it.
20:18 And then the reaction of that
20:20 spawns other things to happen.
20:22 You know what I mean?
20:22 So I'm always watching, well, how am I being used?
20:25 Like, you know, what's happening?
20:27 Like, what's going on right now, you know?
20:30 And you can't be mad at that.
20:31 - And then I wanted to ask about one more, the last song.
20:44 Dreams once buried beneath the dungeon floor
20:46 slowly sprout into undying gardens.
20:48 - Yeah.
20:49 Yeah, that song, which is the last song on the album,
20:53 just for information, that is actually the first song
20:56 that we recorded as a group.
20:58 We're creeping along and filling it out.
21:00 And it just felt like this enchanted
21:02 kind of garden at first.
21:04 And so the title is kind of referencing
21:07 that enchanted garden thing.
21:10 But it's also like, I wanted to kind of like,
21:13 go back to the very beginning.
21:14 So I wanted to like pinpoint the dungeon,
21:17 the dungeon where I'm from, you know,
21:19 with myself, OutKast, Goody Mob, Organized Noise.
21:22 And we started in Rico Wade's basement and it was dirt.
21:27 Like it was actually, it wasn't a floor.
21:29 It was actually a crawl space where the music equipment was.
21:33 And I just felt like there was a continuation.
21:37 Like I always wanted to, it's not a separate thing.
21:40 It's a continuation from where we started, you know?
21:43 So everything kind of goes back to the dungeon.
21:46 When you look back at it, yeah, we were kids
21:48 and you know, we were different in high school,
21:50 but even, you know, choosing the name OutKast,
21:53 it was like, okay, you kind of don't,
21:56 you just don't fit in really.
21:57 And I've really felt that way, even outside of music,
22:00 just kind of in my life.
22:01 Like I don't really feel like I belong to any sect.
22:05 I don't feel like I belong to the young rap crew.
22:08 I don't feel like I belong to the aged adults.
22:11 Yeah, I've just never, yeah,
22:15 I just don't feel like you fit in anywhere.
22:17 So you just kind of got to take that
22:19 and just, it is what it is, you know?
22:22 - I watched the clip of you guys being booed
22:25 at the Source Awards this morning.
22:28 You looked so young.
22:30 - Oh yeah.
22:31 Yeah, we were youngins, man.
22:33 - Are those fond memories when you look back on them
22:36 at that time? - Oh yeah, man.
22:37 They like, those times were the best times ever, man.
22:41 Like, and you wish you could get them back.
22:43 Like you wish you can all go back and sleep on the dungeon,
22:46 sleep on the floor in the dungeon.
22:48 You know, time moves on and things grow, things change.
22:51 Families come, new generations come,
22:55 generations after you come, even musically, you know?
22:58 Even looking at the landscape of music now,
23:01 like I'm so happy and blessed that I'm still alive
23:04 to be able to see like a lineage, you know, to see it.
23:08 Like to be able to clear it. - Do you see it?
23:10 - Yeah, I see it.
23:11 And I hear it because a lot of these guys
23:13 actually like reach out and like, we talk.
23:15 And I think a lineage is important in any art form
23:18 and anything because I think you do a disservice
23:22 if you don't tell people where things came from.
23:24 When I'm making music, I always feel like,
23:27 oh, I wonder what George would think.
23:29 Or I wonder if Jimmy was here, what would he think?
23:32 You know, or I wonder what would Prince think?
23:34 You're only as good as the people before you.
23:36 - Yeah.
23:37 - It's just true because those are your building blocks
23:38 and I don't care who you are and it will always be that way
23:41 and it will just keep going.
23:43 And that's, it's gratifying to know that your life
23:48 has had meaning for someone or a group of people.
23:52 - And for such a long time, I mean, like I was saying,
23:55 I see how young you are in that clip.
23:57 I say, God, these guys were so successful, so young,
24:01 you know, do you think about that?
24:04 Like did that, what kind of effect did that have on you?
24:06 - It was a blessing to be successful that young.
24:09 Like, I think our career is kind of interesting
24:11 because since our very first album,
24:15 we've gone platinum and just kept rising.
24:18 Like, so next album was double, next three, next four.
24:21 So it kept, it just kept rising.
24:23 - I think you're 13X today, I heard.
24:25 - Yeah, I recently heard that, which is so crazy to me.
24:28 - On Speakerboxx, love, love.
24:29 - So, so, so crazy.
24:30 - Best selling rap album of all time.
24:32 - It's something in it,
24:33 'cause I'm always kind of trying to figure out,
24:34 well, what's the bad in it?
24:35 I don't know, I'm just a negator.
24:37 We haven't taken a fall, you know what I mean?
24:40 And I think sometimes you build character
24:42 or you build something by failure.
24:46 Idlewild may have been our slip.
24:49 You know, you never know.
24:50 The only thing you can do is be honest
24:52 about what you're doing at the time
24:54 because what you don't want to happen,
24:56 you don't want to fall or fail
24:58 when you were trying to mimic something
25:00 or trying to appease someone else.
25:02 - Is that what keeps you away from Outkast now?
25:05 - I think there's a certain chemistry
25:06 that me and Big Boi have.
25:08 I think people don't understand that chemistry changes.
25:11 Outkast was a true chemistry.
25:13 The elements we had were not supposed to go together
25:16 a lot of times, you know, but it's something that,
25:18 and I think they call it rocket fuel.
25:20 Like when you have these kinds of forces
25:22 that may be opposing, but they're going for the same goal,
25:26 but they kind of get this kind of reaction to each other
25:30 and it makes magic.
25:32 But as like people, like me and Big Boi,
25:34 like we still tough, you know,
25:36 like it hadn't changed and it'll always be that way
25:38 because we were friends first.
25:40 Like we weren't put into a group together or anything.
25:42 So we'll always have that.
25:44 - But plenty of people would get,
25:46 especially since I think,
25:48 at least for years the understanding was
25:50 that he would have kept going if you would have.
25:52 - Oh, no, man, Big Boi is, Big Boi, he is on it.
25:56 - He's back tomorrow.
25:57 - Yeah, he is the biggest cheerleader, like for OutKast.
26:00 Big Boi's all, man, we the fucking greatest.
26:02 You know, he's the Muhammad Ali kind of like.
26:05 - The love between you guys is very real.
26:07 'Cause I think that that energy,
26:09 those different goals would have split other people up,
26:12 not just as a group, but as like two human beings.
26:14 - I do know that I'm not the controller.
26:17 Big Boi is not the controller of any of this.
26:20 We couldn't have planned where we are, you know,
26:22 so we can't plan an ending.
26:25 - You guys did reunite one time to play shows, 2014.
26:28 - Yes.
26:29 I ain't been on stage in damn near 15, 20 years.
26:34 So it was like, it was odd for me.
26:36 And actually right before the show,
26:38 you see Paul McCartney walk
26:41 and go to the left side of the stage.
26:43 And then Prince walks to the right side of the stage.
26:46 I'm like, what the fuck, man?
26:49 And you know, there's new technologies like earbuds
26:53 and shit like I'd never used earbuds in my life.
26:55 Like we were always just in front of the monitors
26:57 or listening to the speakers.
26:58 So if you were watching the Coachella show,
27:01 like I got people in my ear talking and shit
27:04 and I'm just like, what the hell is going on?
27:06 So halfway through the show, I was already checked out.
27:10 I was already in my bed at home.
27:12 So I was just trying to get through it.
27:13 And so, yeah, the show happens and it was a bomb night.
27:18 It was horrible, in my eyes, it was horrible.
27:21 The very next morning, I get a call from Prince,
27:23 which I don't know him like that.
27:25 I don't know how he got my number.
27:26 I do not know.
27:28 And first thing he says is,
27:30 you know what your problem is?
27:31 You don't realize how big y'all are.
27:34 And then he was like, you gotta remind people who you are.
27:41 And from that point on, like, I was like, okay.
27:46 - Is it weird to live like where knowing that
27:50 if you wanted to next week,
27:52 you could be on stage in front of 60,000 people?
27:54 - It's only weird in like the scale of thinking about that.
27:58 You know, even when we did the OutKast 20,
28:01 we opened up for Rolling Stones on one of the dates
28:04 and I'd never seen that many people in my life.
28:07 - Was there like a mental adjustment to be like,
28:09 oh, I'm by myself again?
28:12 - I mean, there's been so many times in my mind
28:13 where I thought I was done.
28:15 So it wasn't even like a struggle.
28:17 It wasn't like, oh, what am I gonna do now?
28:20 Like, yeah, there are times, even still now,
28:23 like doing all of this.
28:25 Like I remember a couple of weeks ago
28:27 talking to my manager and publicist.
28:28 I was like, I really had to ask myself,
28:30 do I wanna be just out there again?
28:32 Like to do the run, to do the PR,
28:35 to like, and I really had to ask myself.
28:38 And I honestly don't.
28:39 I don't wanna, like I really enjoy my life.
28:41 I like being able to do what I want as a civilian.
28:47 You know, we're not just walking in the world,
28:50 but at the same time, I wanna promote the music.
28:53 So I'm only doing it to promote the music.
28:55 Like I'm not, this ain't no flex.
28:57 - And forgive me if this is like not something
29:00 that's fun or comfortable to talk about
29:02 'cause we don't have to,
29:03 but it's like you've talked in the past
29:04 about actually having some amount of real social anxiety.
29:07 - Yeah, it's true.
29:09 And it never goes away.
29:10 It's like, it's not like a cure all kind of thing.
29:15 It's just, it just becomes a part of life
29:17 and you just have to kind of like take a deep breath,
29:19 smile a little bit and just get through it for tomorrow.
29:23 That's the best I can say, you know.
29:25 - Do you think that's something that developed
29:27 in reaction of fame or something you always have?
29:30 - For sure, for sure.
29:31 I think that may have been a trigger,
29:33 like a traumatic kind of thing
29:35 because it's really unnatural
29:37 to have that much attention as a human, you know,
29:39 or to have that much expectation as a human.
29:41 I had to adjust people filming you all the time
29:45 or just like coming up to you
29:46 and like, and that was so weird to me,
29:49 like very, very weird to me and I didn't like it.
29:52 It made me not want to play at all.
29:55 It made me not want to come out at all.
29:57 One thing a therapist told me, he was like,
29:59 "Well, son, the thing that makes your art what it is,
30:03 is the thing that you don't like either."
30:05 So it's like, what am I gonna do?
30:07 - What are you gonna do?
30:08 - It's not like I can change it.
30:09 - Yeah, yeah.
30:10 - Just kind of rock with it.
30:11 - Do you feel like something like the new record
30:13 is like an attempt to just change the terms
30:15 of the conversation in a way?
30:17 - I will say it's the most honest thing
30:19 that I could do at the moment
30:21 and I feel really good about it.
30:22 And one thing that I noticed listening back at the album
30:25 is it's kind of a reset
30:27 or a reintroduction of a new volume.
30:29 I'm not trying to compete with people on the radio.
30:31 Like most records that come out, when you master them,
30:35 you master them to the loudest that they can go, you know?
30:38 And I was having a conversation with the engineer
30:41 and a lot of his engineer buddies, they were saying,
30:44 "We've realized as engineers that as humans,
30:47 we've gotten as loud as we can get in human history.
30:52 When you think about that, we can't get any louder."
30:54 As an engineer, people send you files.
30:57 A lot of times they look like these thick bars,
31:00 solid bars when music used to look like that.
31:03 - Sure, dynamic.
31:04 - Dynamic.
31:05 And so on the record,
31:05 there's certain kind of suggested listening tactics.
31:09 Like we would say, you know, listen at a low to mid volume,
31:12 you know, 'cause these are not bangers.
31:14 - When you listen to music now, do you hear your influence?
31:18 - Yeah.
31:19 - Where do you hear it most?
31:20 - A certain artist.
31:22 I see it visually.
31:23 I see it more in spirit
31:27 and people pushing things and trying things.
31:31 And I love the spirit.
31:34 Like I think I'm happy that people caught on
31:36 on the spirit part.
31:37 Like you see Tyler in them.
31:39 You see like Teezo touchdown and those guys,
31:41 like you're like, "Ah."
31:42 The coolest thing is it's not like a signing.
31:47 It's not like a copy.
31:48 It's the next, it's a lineage.
31:51 - Yeah.
31:52 - It's a lineage.
31:53 Like these people got their own thing.
31:55 - Do you allow yourself to picture how people might react
31:59 to this record when it's out in the world?
32:01 - Yeah, I do.
32:02 - What do you picture?
32:03 - I have a lot of different outcomes
32:05 and it depends on different people.
32:06 Like you may get someone that cries.
32:08 You may get someone that immediately starts to do yoga.
32:11 Then you got the homie that be like,
32:13 "Y'all gonna put some beats on that shit?"
32:15 My friends don't always like my music,
32:17 which is hilarious to me.
32:18 Like one of my homies told me,
32:20 like after I finished "Hey Ya" and I played it for him,
32:22 he said, "Man, if you put that out, man,
32:27 your career is over."
32:28 And in my mind, I'm like, "Damn, but I like this shit."
32:34 - Do you have any other plans around it
32:36 in terms of, will you tour?
32:39 - Oh yeah.
32:40 Oh man, I'm glad you asked that.
32:41 So the cool thing about how we recorded it,
32:44 making up the sound, like everything that y'all are hearing,
32:46 we made it up at that point.
32:47 And so the live performances will be that again.
32:51 So we get to actually go out and do it live.
32:53 And like, I actually had to go back and listen
32:55 and relearn some of the melodies that I played,
32:57 but it'll always be a completely new performance every time.
33:01 - Have you thought much about just being on stage again?
33:04 - Yes, I have.
33:05 And it's terrifying.
33:06 (laughing)
33:07 It is terrifying.
33:08 It's a very new experience for me,
33:10 like, which is totally different from getting on stage
33:12 and rapping some songs.
33:13 There's more involved in what I have to do now
33:15 than rapping songs that I've written.
33:18 That's kind of like muscle memory and just energy.
33:21 And you're able to hide some of the nervousness
33:23 through your energy.
33:24 Here, it's all in your face.
33:26 You're on a tightrope the whole time.
33:27 Like I can't hide behind a beat that you already know
33:30 or hide behind lyrics that you already are into.
33:33 It is what it is.
33:34 It's fun to do it.
33:35 Like when I'm actually playing, it's fun.
33:37 It's fun.
33:39 (humming)
33:41 (humming)
33:43 (humming)
33:47 (humming)
33:49 (humming)
33:52 (humming)
33:54 [BLANK_AUDIO]