André 3000

Bio

André 3000 quit rapping. He has said this directly, on the record, multiple times since about 2018. The official explanation is that he ran out of things to say in rap form. The actual story is a little more complicated, and probably involves the kind of mid-life rethinking that anyone who hits a creative ceiling at the top of an art form has to do. He released a flute album in 2023. It is, against most reasonable expectations, very good.

He was born André Lauren Benjamin on May 27, 1975, in Atlanta. He met Antwan Patton (Big Boi) at Tri-Cities High School in East Point. They formed OutKast as teenagers. By 1994 they had a record deal with LaFace. They were nineteen. The duo's career — Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik (1994), ATLiens (1996), Aquemini (1998), Stankonia (2000), Speakerboxxx/The Love Below (2003), Idlewild (2006) — is one of the most consistent runs in rap history. Six albums. Six platinum-or-better records. Two Grammy wins for Album of the Year.

André's verses on the OutKast records are the verses people who do not otherwise love OutKast quote. His verse on "Aquemini" (1998), four minutes long, two-thirds of which is just him, is one of the most-imitated verses ever recorded. His verse on "Ms. Jackson" is the one your mother quotes. His verse on "International Player's Anthem (I Choose You)" with UGK in 2007 ("keep your heart, three stacks") is in the running for the best opening rap verse since the Inspectah Deck "Triumph" verse.

After Idlewild, André essentially stopped recording solo rap. He showed up on features for a long time (Frank Ocean, Kanye, Beyoncé, Drake, Kid Cudi, more). He did The Love Below-style off-rap experiments. He acted (Jimi in 2013, Show Me a Hero in 2015, High Life in 2018). He started wearing flutes around his neck in public starting around 2019.

In November 2023, he released New Blue Sun on Epic Records. It is an instrumental album of flute compositions. It has eight tracks, all over six minutes long, all titled with sentence-length titles like "That Night in Hawaii When I Turned into a Panther and Started Making These Flute Songs." Pitchfork gave it 8.5. He was nominated for the Album of the Year Grammy. He went on tour with it.

He is, in 2026, fifty years old. He is not rapping. He may rap again. He may not. He is the rare canonical MC who has been allowed, by his audience and by himself, to grow into a different artist than the one we first met. That is the rare thing. Most rappers do not get to do this. André does. Watch what he does next.