André 3000‘s life is a lot different these days, as he’s traded his bars for the sounds of a flute. Speaking to Crack magazine, he says he’s long past the days of diss tracks, though he does believe it’s a good lyrical exercise.
“You have feelings … if n***** say some slick s***, lines will come to your head immediately,” he says, noting he’s not interested in “the things that can happen once verbal disrespect has gone too far.” Noticing this in the Kendrick Lamar and Drake feud made him “a little sad, at a certain point.”
“In early rap battles, you had kids in the park rapping against each other. But it’s not just people rapping now. You got people with 100 employees. You have livelihoods, empires, companies, deals – all of it can be jeopardised,” says Three Stacks. “If you don’t have anything to lose, sure, go for it. But if I already made it, I’m not sure it’s even worth it any more.”
Instead, you can find André in Venice — or on his current tour supporting his New Blue Sun album, which hits Europe and the U.K. in August. “I haven’t played in London in a long time,” he says. “So the European tour is going to be fun. One thing I do know – for some reason, Europe and Asia treat music more deeply. So I’m excited to play in those spaces.”
Like the album, he says the tour’s a method of exploration.
“Every night – the same way the album was made – we’re exploring space,” André says. “Right before we go on stage, we have this huddle, and we’ll say, ‘We’re going into deep oceans right now. We don’t know what’s going to happen, but we trust each other.’ It feels great to do that every night.”
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