Hiatuses and Comebacks

        Whenever an artist or a group goes on a musical hiatus, it always leaves a fan, or journalist, wondering when they will be back. Recently, rapper Macklemore and his producer Ryan Lewis announced they would be going on a hiatus from music after the Grammy Awards in 2014. The duo’s manager, Zach Quillen, released this information in an interview with xxlmag.com. “Yeah, we’re gonna disappear for a little while,” says Quillen. “This album cycle is coming to a close. We'll, I imagine, go to the Grammys in January this year and afterwards, kind of call it quits for a bit and take some time off." The rapper-producer team plan to release new material and new album sometime in 2014, but also said they are “in no rush.”

         But with music hiatuses also come musical comebacks. This year we have comebacks from artists such as Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z. The music projects put out by those two artists is award-caliber material, but what other comebacks are occurring this year? R&B superstar R. Kelly plans to release a new album in December and recent reports have said the hip hop group Outkast plan to reunite and perform at the 2014 Coachella Music and Arts Festival in Indio, California. Outkast has not put out any material as a group since the release of the soundtrack to their movie Idlewild in 2006. Andre 3000 has made guest appearances on songs for artists such as Lil Wayne, Rick Ross, T.I., and Frank Ocean. While Big Boi has released two successful solo albums (Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty in 2010, Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors in 2012). The closest thing to a reunion fans have gotten is the Big Boi-assisted remix to Frank Ocean’s “Pink Matter” which features Andre 3000 on the original. The news of an Outkast reunion has fans and hip-hop heads excited because this reunion could be the ground work towards a new Outkast album in the near future.

Twitter: @OddKingz