The Future of Outkast: With Andre 3000 and Big Boi actively involved in film projects, the rumors fo a split which began circulating with the release of Speakerboxxx/The Love Below have only increased in volume. There have been reports the two were drifting apart professionally and were going to separate in order to work on different projects. Benjamin addressed the rumors and provided an update on what’s happening with Outkast: “As far as the future of Outkast, we’re really not saying what we’re going to do next. We’re concentrating on what we’re doing now, which is the Idlewild movie and the Idlewild soundtrack.
As far as the rumors, I guess you’ve got to say that we’ve been doing it for 12 or 13 years. We ain’t shot nobody, we ain’t killed nobody, we ain’t slapped nobody, we ain’t sleeping with Paris Hilton, so what can you talk about? And when people say, ‘Well, Andre, he’s not going on tour,’ or ‘Andre doesn’t want to be on a record label,’ or ‘He doesn’t want to be in the music business, as far as a label,’ those decisions make people say, ‘Well, he and Big Boi are drifting apart.’ But, really, that’s a personal choice and we both definitely understand it.
We most definitely [are] not breaking up or drifting. We’re grown men now. We don’t hang out the same. We hang out, but we don’t hang out every day like we used to. We don’t live in the same house like we used to. It’s kind of like your brother. You grew up with him and now y’all gotta go and get your own house, and you got your own family. You’ve got kids. I’ve got my son. It’s a new game, but we still trip out like it’s 10th grade.”
Patton agreed with his Outkast partner. “Yeah, exactly. That’s one thing that a lot of people just don’t know. Sometimes, for a minute, we’d get mad and be like, ‘Man, what the f**k are they saying?’ Somebody would come and interview us and just really try to paint their own picture. The whole time they’re interviewing us, we’re talking and laughing’ and talking about s**t that happened to us back when we were 17 or 18. They go back and write the story like, ‘Well, he was so distant and he was not really talking to him, and I think he was drinking a Pepsi and he wanted the Coca Cola.” (Laughing) It would be some dumb s**t and we’d just be like, ‘Man, how can they do that?’ They take things you say and try to take it out of context. Like, ‘Well, maybe Dre’s mad because Big Boi’s married,’ just stupid stuff. But we’ve been saying for years, it’s about the music. Our personal lives are our personal lives. Us, as far as individuals, the brotherhood we have, we had the brainchild Outkast. We made that idea, and that principle has never left us. We created this and nothing music or movies do can break this up. That’s my dog, for life.”
