On the eve of New Blue Sun, Andre 3000's first release in 17 years, he spoke with GQ about the album, his creative process, and his reluctance to rap.

"I think in general with my creative juices in Outkast, I just didn't know where else to go," the "Hey Ya!" rapper revealed. "Even now people think that I'm just sittin on raps, or just holdin' these raps hostage. I ain't got raps like that. It actually sometimes feels inauthentic for me to rap because I don't have anything to talk about in that way."

Andre then explains that his age and current reality in a way dictate his output. "I'm 48 years old, not that your age dictates what you rap about, but in a way it does. Things that happen in my life, like going to get a colonoscopy, or what do I rap about? My eyesight going bad?"

As far as New Blue Sun, Andre suggests that it's not a "flute album."

"It's an album where I'm playing wind instruments, sometimes that's native flutes, and sometimes digital wind instruments. You'll hear me on the album actually learning the instruments, which is one of the really cool things about it. I never stop trying things, and I even jotted down lyrics here and there, but none of that excited me. It felt like I was trying to do a thing, and I never want to feel like that."

He also revealed that he has anonymous wind recordings that have already been released. "I've actually played some wind things that I've put out in the world where I've called myself another name," he explained. "I was just testing it out in a way with different artists."

Check out the clip above.