OutKast has broken up

I've been on top of this story for weeks now, but word must be getting out to the streets (i.e. people who buy movie tickets and CDs) that OutKast has broken up.

Here's Andre 3000 at MTV today conducting spin control.

"Yesterday I got a phone call from Big Boi and he said that on some hip-hop Web sites that the headlines were reading something to the effect of, 'It's Official: Outkast Is Broken Up,' or something like that," Andre said. "And man, we're looking at it like, where is this sh-- coming from? [...]

"N---as hit me in the street like, 'Yeah man, I heard the bad news. Sorry to hear about that,' "

It'd be doubly sorry if their best years weren't already behind them. As it is, you get the idea that they're just stringing us along for their own personal benefit.

You'll recall that neither one of them appear in each other's videos for "Morris Brown" and "Idlewild Blue." According to Andre 3000, this is because they couldn't find time to create a suitable video for "Mighty O." But they had time to film two separate videos? Hmm...

In order to combat breakup rumors though, he claims they'll appear together in the next video for the album, which may or may not be "Hollywood Divorce." Only thing is, I wonder if the label will be willing to sink more money into this if it only does Gigli numbers.

XXL, who gave an XL rating to a southern rap mixtape hosted by DJ Kay Slay, only gave the Idlewild soundtrack an L, which I took to mean that it might border on being entirely unlistenable.