André 3000 has revealed that Prince once called him to explain what went wrong with OutKast’s 2014 reunion performance.
The hip-hop duo – consisting of André 3000 and Big Boi – kicked off their reunion tour in 2014 with a headlining slot at Coachella. Their performance at the festival’s first weekend was met with lukewarm reviews. The duo returned on weekend two with a revamped setlist and performance.
Speaking with GQ in a new interview, André 3000 recalled the lecture Prince gave him following the duo’s first performance back.
“The very next morning I get a call from Prince,” he said. “Which I don’t know him like that, I don’t know how he got my number. I do not know. And the first thing he says is, ‘You know what your problem is? You don’t realize how big y’all are.’ And then he was like, ‘You got to remind people who you are.’ And from that point on, I was like, Okay.”
The interview comes ahead of the rapper’s upcoming first solo album in 17 years, which will reportedly consist of an 87-minute long album of experimental flute music. ‘New Blue Sun’ is set to drop tomorrow (November 17).
He revealed to fans that the album is not a rap record and even includes a label on the cover warning that the LP contains “no bars”.
“Sometimes it feels inauthentic for me to rap. I’ve worked with some of the newest, freshest, youngest, and old-school producers. I get beats all the time. I try to write all the time,” André told GQ.
He continued: “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. It actually feels…sometimes it feels inauthentic for me to rap because I don’t have anything to talk about in that way.”
“I’m 48 years old. And not to say that age is a thing that dictates what you rap about, but in a way it does,” he said. “And things that happen in my life, like, what are you talking about? ‘I got to go get a colonoscopy.’ What are you rapping about? ‘My eyesight is going bad.’ You can find cool ways to say it, but….”
In other news, the rapper recently revealed that he had to ask Beyoncé’s permission to use her name on a forthcoming song title.
In an interview with NPR, the rapper said: “Thank you, Beyoncé, for letting me use the name! I actually had to clear it. I had to call. And thanks Jay! I text him, I was like, ‘Hey man, can you ask Beyoncé? I know I got this clearance thing coming through for this song.’ And I explained to him how I used it. And I’m just happy they let me use it so thank y’all. I really appreciate that.”
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