"Our chemistries have changed" — Andre 3000 on the possibility of dropping new Outkast album with Big Boi

Rapper Andre 3000 recently opened up about the possibility of making another Outkast album with Big Boi in an interview with poet Hanif Abdurraqib published in The Bitter Southerner dated May 15. The duo's last album, Idlewild, released in 2005 and fans have been demanding another collaboration between the two since then.

Speaking to Abdurraqib, Andre 3000 said he and Big Boi are "cool" and the latter will always remain his "homie." He said:

“You know, people always ask about me and Big Boi. We cool, man. That’s my homie forever. We were friends before doing music.”

However, the rapper said "their chemistries have changed" and he could not guarantee whether there will be a new OutKast album. He said:

“People ask, so will there be another OutKast album? I really can’t say, man. I do realize that our chemistries have changed. We’re different people. We’re totally different people."

The rapper further elaborated that their bond is "ever-changing", stating:

"Not to say that we won’t be able to make any kind of music, but I think, yeah, people have to realize, like even in relationships, man, husband and wife, chemistry should change after a while. And I think people think there’s this one thing that has to stay a way, but we are ever-changing, man.”

Since OutKast's last album in 2005, Big Boi has released three solo albums. Andre 3000 released his first solo album, New Blue Sun, in November 2003. The rapper reunited with his former bandmate during the Atlanta leg of his New Blue Sun tour. It was the duo's first performance together on stage since 2016.

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How did Andre 3000 and Big Boi meet?

Wireless Festival 2014 - Day 3 (Photo by Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images)

Andre 3000 and Big Boi together formed the band OutKast and established themselves as one of the most popular hip-hop duos of recent times. The duo has won six Grammys and received a diamond RIAA certification during their 12-year reign.

Speaking to American Songwriter in November 2020, Big Boi revealed how he met Andre. The two met as new students when they began studying in the same new high school. He said:

“We were new to a school, Tri-Cities High School in East Point in 10th grade. There was a lot of kids from different schools transferred to this one school so nobody really knew each other. It was like a group of guys, it was like maybe five or six of us."

Big Boi added:

"And we started hanging out. Then me and Dre, you know, just stuck to each other and were like, you know, brothers. We were just in and out of school just kind of coolin’. He’s one of my best friends.”

After four or five years of the duo meeting and becoming friends at Tri-Cities High in Georgia, Big Boi and Andre 3000 formed their band duo and named themselves OutKast. They began working on their debut album, Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, which released in April 1994.

In a 2016 interview with Spin.com, Big Boi said he and Andre 3000 discovered they were like "two sides of the same coin" with "different points of view", during the making of their first album. He said:

“Southernplayalistic was definitely eye-to-eye. One person would get far and be like, ‘I got it!’ And then it’d be like, ‘Go ahead and lay it.’ Then I’d do my part. ‘Oh sh*t!’ You’re inspiring your partner, bouncing that energy back and forth. That’s what makes the group so unf*ckwithable. You have two sides of the same coin with different points of view. The sh*t fun, man.”

In 1996, OutKast put out their next album, ATLiens. During the making of their second album, Boi and Andre 3000 were on tour with another Atlanta producer group, Organized Noize. In his aforementioned conversation with Spin.com, the rapper revealed how the group influenced their songwriting. He said:

“We went on tour and Organized Noize rented out the top floor of the Biltmore Hotel in Atlanta. They were camped out in there with all kinds of beat machines, and by the time we came home, they had already started laying the foundations to the album. "

"By that time, we also had already started producing songs like ‘Elevators.’ We learned from being under them for so long. What better way to paint a picture than being able to create the soundscape for your words? We were maturing and coming of age then. Just trying to figure out, ‘Where are we going?'”

Outkast's other albums include Aquemini (1998), Stankonia (2000), Speakerboxxx/The Love Below (2003), and their final album, Idlewild (2006). The duo did not release any album following Idlewild, although both Big Boi and Andre 3000 have done solo work since then.

Speaking to The Creative Independent in 2022, Big Boi said OutKast was never "caught up" by the pressures of what everyone wanted from them. He said:

“We never got caught up by the pressures of what everyone else wanted from us. As a group, we never wanted to be doing what everybody else was doing. Obviously, we’re aware of what’s happening with music, but you don’t wanna be in those circles. You wanna create your own circle.”

In a 2022 interview on 10 Questions with Kyle Brandt, Big Boi revealed that he misses performing with Andre 3000. However, no talks about a reunion of the hip-hop duo have been made official yet.