André 3000 was spotted several times around the country playing a flute last year. One lucky fan snapped a photo of him playing it at an airport, while another caught him wandering around in Philly putting musical notes into the air and taking photos with his fans.
During a recent interview with Complex, Madlib — who is acutely aware of Three Stacks’ flute love affair — was asked about a fan mashup called Otis Benjamin and whether he’d ever work with the celebrated Outkast MC.
“Hell yeah,” he replied. “We’ll make that shit way better than that. That was like … Eh. We’ll do it right, you know what I mean?”
When asked how he’d plan to get Dre out of retirement, he said, “I mean, he can do a flute album with me if he wants. Pied Piper and the beat conductor.”
Rumors of a solo André 3000 album were put to rest earlier this year while speaking to Rick Rubin on the Broken Record podcast.
“I haven’t been making much music, man,” he said. “My focus is not there. My confidence is not there. I tinker — I tinker a lot. Like I’ll just go to a piano and I’ll set my iPhone down and just record what I’m doing, move my fingers and whatever happens, but I haven’t been motivated to do a serious project. I’d like to, but it’s just not coming.”
He also explained he’s more into instrumental music these days.
“And what makes me feel the best is when I just do these random kind of instrumental kind of things,” he added. “They make me feel the most rebellious. I don’t like to go with the flow really. I don’t know why, but I just feel best when I don’t. So, I have to honor that. I have to honor that in a way.”
Revisit the interview below.