André 3000 was spotted several times around the country playing a flute last year. One lucky fan snapped a photo of him playing it at an airport, while another caught him wandering around in Philly putting musical notes into the air and taking photos with his fans.

During a recent interview with Complex, Madlib — who is acutely aware of Three Stacks’ flute love affair — was asked about a fan mashup called Otis Benjamin and whether he’d ever work with the celebrated Outkast MC.

“Hell yeah,” he replied. “We’ll make that shit way better than that. That was like … Eh. We’ll do it right, you know what I mean?”

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When asked how he’d plan to get Dre out of retirement, he said, “I mean, he can do a flute album with me if he wants. Pied Piper and the beat conductor.”

Rumors of a solo André 3000 album were put to rest earlier this year while speaking to Rick Rubin on the Broken Record podcast.

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“I haven’t been making much music, man,” he said. “My focus is not there. My confidence is not there. I tinker — I tinker a lot. Like I’ll just go to a piano and I’ll set my iPhone down and just record what I’m doing, move my fingers and whatever happens, but I haven’t been motivated to do a serious project. I’d like to, but it’s just not coming.”

André 3000 Captured Wandering Around Airport Playing A Flute

Dre also explained he’s more into instrumental music these days.

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“And what makes me feel the best is when I just do these random kind of instrumental kind of things,” he added. “They make me feel the most rebellious. I don’t like to go with the flow really. I don’t know why, but I just feel best when I don’t. So, I have to honor that. I have to honor that in a way.”

Revisit the interview below.