André 3000 has shared details about his first solo album in 17 years, an 87-minute long album of experimental flute music.
Announced today (November 14), the OutKast rapper revealed to fans that the album is not a rap record and even includes a label on the cover warning that the LP contains “no bars”.
Titled ‘New Blue Sun’, the album is instead an 87-minute long record of both minimalist and experimental music, which hears André take on a variety of woodwind instruments including contrabass flute, Mayan flutes, bamboo flutes as well as other digital wind instruments. No bars, beats or vocals are included.
“I’ve always kind of been analysing it or figuring out how I wanted to approach it… I have to feel happy about sharing it,” André 3000 told NPR about his approach to a new solo album.
“That’s why ‘New Blue Sun’ was something that I realised, whoa, I really want people to hear it. I really want to share it. That’s my only gauge. I have to like it as a person, as an artist myself, because if I don’t like it I can’t expect nobody else to like it. I can’t pretend in that way. That’s always been hard for me”.
He continued, recalling that he sought advice from Tyler, The Creator and Frank Ocean on the project. Additionally, although he’d been playing flute for several years, the recording process of the album took him to “other realms” in his music.
“When I say it transcended me, it took me to different places to play,” he explained. “In this situation, we [had] the engineer set up and we just [pressed] record and find ourselves and listen to each other. So everything you’re hearing on ‘New Blue Sun’ was spontaneous compositions. We made it up on the spot.”
Set for release on Friday (November 17), ‘New Blue Sun’ features Carlos Niño (percussion), Nate Mercereau (guitar), and Surya Botofasina (keyboards). It also comes with some eye-catching song titles – check them out in the tracklist below and pre-order the album here.
The ‘New Blue Sun’ tracklist:
01. ‘I swear, I Really Wanted To Make A “Rap” Album But This Is Literally The Way The Wind Blew Me This Time’
02. ‘The Slang Word P(*)ssy Rolls Off The Tongue With Far Better Ease Than The Proper Word Vagina . Do You Agree?’
03. ‘That Night In Hawaii When I Turned Into A Panther And Started Making These Low Register Purring Tones That I Couldn’t Control … Sh¥t Was Wild’
04. ‘BuyPoloDisorder’s Daughter Wears A 3000™ Button Down Embroidered’
05. ‘Ninety Three ‘Til Infinity And Beyoncé’
06. ‘Ghandi, Dalai Lama, Your Lord & Savior J.C. / Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, And John Wayne Gacy’
07. ‘Ants To You, Gods To Who?’
08. ‘Dreams Once Buried Beneath The Dungeon Floor Slowly Sprout Into Undying Gardens’
Discussing the lengthy song titles in the interview with NPR, André 3000 said “they were long on purpose” to give the listener some instruction on what to think about when listening to the instrumental tracks.
He also revealed that the album title is meant to refer to a sun in a parallel universe and reflects how the album marks “a new world” and “a new direction” in his music.
In the time since his final album with OutKast, 2006’s ‘Idlewild’, André 3000 had distanced himself from making music. He’s instead contributed guest verses to various tracks and has focused on his acting career.
The closest he came to a solo album was ‘The Love Below’ from OutKast’s 2003 double LP ‘Speakerboxxx/The Love Below’.
Speculation about the album arose earlier this summer when Killer Mike revealed in an interview that the artist was working on a new project. The topic arose as Killer Mike was promoting his collaboration with the artist on the track ‘Scientists & Engineers’.