The Pop Corporation

You’ll be hard-pressed to find a person we like more than Andre 3000 at PopCorps. Part of the greatest hip hop act to ever do it, endlessly cool and now, seemingly living his life entirely on his own terms and being spotted around the States just vibing with his wooden flute, any mention of him brings a deep and true sense of joy.

And he’s apparently working on a new album.

Killer Mike – Dungeon Family member and of course, featured on ‘The Whole World’ – was speaking to Sway on ‘Sway In The Morning’, and when asked about Three Stacks, the new LP was mentioned. Mike replied: “Yeah. I think we fly out in a couple weeks to go listen to it.”

He added: “[He] played like nine, 10 joints for us and he said, ‘Well, just pick what you like and do something with it.’ Over the past decade, I’ve sent him records for me, Run The Jewels and stuff, and he’d come back like ‘Man, that shit’s hard. I’m just not into rapping right now.’”

Andre has featured on a number of tracks in the interim and Outkast’s last LP was all the way back in 2006, but he’s been relatively quiet. He’s previously said that his focus has been elsewhere, and it’s obvious that he won’t be rushed by our collective neediness to have him in our eye line again.

Speaking to Rick Rubin a while back, he said: “It’s just not coming. I haven’t been making much music, man. My focus is not there, my confidence is not there. Once the attention is on that world, the world goes away.”

“I tinker a lot. I’ll just go to a piano and I’ll set my iPhone down and just record what I’m doing, moving my fingers and whatever happens, but I haven’t been motivated to do a serious project.”

Well, maybe that focus has slowly returned and we won’t guess what form any new LP will take. Let’s lower our expectations, let him walk back at whatever speed he wants, and we’ll just be happy to have him around again, because the man is an international treasure.