Andre 3000 hasn't released any rap music because he hasn't found anything "inspiring enough" to rap to.

The Outkast star – whose real name is Andre Benjamin - returned with his debut solo album, the instrumental wind collection 'New Blue Sun', last month after a 17-year hiatus.

And the 48-year-old star has explained the reason why he stepped away from his traditional hip-hop sound was because nothing got his creative juices flowing enough to want to spit over it.

He told CBS Mornings Anthony Mason: “I write down ideas and lyrics all the time. And maybe I haven’t found the music that’s inspiring enough for me to want to write raps to, or maybe I got to find a new way to rap. If I don’t feel like I’m doing something, it just, it don’t matter to me."

The opening tune is called 'I Really Wanted To Make A Rap Album, But This Is Literally The Way The Wind Blew Me This Time'.

And he wishes he could be "out here with everybody rapping".

Expanding on the reason in a recent interview with NPR, he said: “I don’t want to troll people. I don’t want people to think, Oh, this André 3000 album is coming! And you play it and like, Oh man, no verses. So even actually on the packaging, you’ll see it says, 'Warning: no bars.' It’s letting you know what it is off the top. But also, I love rap music because it was a part of my youth. So I would love to be out here with everybody rapping, because it’s almost like fun and being on the playground.”