Rapper André 3000 has returned to the music scene after 17 years and is dropping a solo album, but with a twist. The rapper has just dropped his debut album, New Blue Sun that is solely an album full of flute with no vocals added.
Speaking to NPR, he details what fans can expect from the album. ”I’m expecting anything just like y’all. I didn’t know I’d be playing a flute,” he said. “I don’t want to troll people,” the artist said. “I don’t want people to think, ‘Oh, this André 3000 album is coming!’ And you play it and like, ‘Oh man, no verses.’”
Also speaking with GQ, he explained why he decided not to make a rap album. “Sometimes it feels inauthentic for me to rap. I’ve worked with some of the newest, freshest, youngest, and old-school producers. I get beats all the time. I try to write all the time.”
He continued, “Even now people think, Oh, man, he’s just sitting on raps, or he’s just holding these raps hostage. I ain’t got no raps like that. It actually feels…sometimes it feels inauthentic for me to rap because I don’t have anything to talk about in that way. I’m 48 years old. And not to say that age is a thing that dictates what you rap about, but in a way it does. And things that happen in my life, like, what are you talking about? ‘I got to go get a colonoscopy.’ What are you rapping about? ‘My eyesight is going bad.’ You can find cool ways to say it.”
He follows up his statement by saying: “In my mind, I really would like to make a rap album, so maybe that happens one day, but I got to find a way to say what I want to say in an interesting way that’s appealing to me at this age.”
Check out New Blue Sun below:
