André 3000, half of the beloved rap duo Outkast and obscure flute aficionado, hasn’t released a proper solo rap song since he and Big Boi recorded their final album in 2006. André’s fans have relied on memorable but brief features (his verse on Beyoncé’s “Party”) or barely-there snippets (the two words he sings on Kanye West’s “30 Hours”) to hear the rapper’s velvety voice.
Now it seems fans will have to keep waiting for Dré’s grand return to rap: In an interview with GQ tied to last week’s release of his instrumental flute record “New Blue Sun,” he said it sometimes “feel inauthentic for me to rap because I don’t have anything to talk about in that way.” “I’m 48 years old. Not to say that age is a thing that dictates what you rap about, but in a way it does,” he told GQ. “What do you talk about — I gotta go get a colonoscopy? What do you rap about — my eyesight is going bad?”
Those who have followed the Atlanta favorite since Outkast’s first album nearly 30 years ago would undoubtedly be thrilled to hear Dré rap candidly about aging. But 48 is by no means rap’s retirement age. Genre stalwarts like Jay-Z, Eminem, Missy Elliott, the duos Black Star and Run the Jewels and even former bandmate Big Boi have found material to mine well into their late 40s and early 50s. Others have set rap down to enter new phases of their careers beyond music — Pharrell is leading Louis Vuitton’s men’s division, and Dr. Dre became one of the richest men in rap after he sold his popular headphone brand Beats to Apple for billions of dollars in 2014.