Andre 3000’s new album is not what you would expect. Andre Lauren Benjamin is an American rapper, singer, musician, and actor. He is best known as Andre 3000 and is known for being the second half of the legendary hip-hop duo Outkast, with Big Boi being the other half. When he was a part of Outkast, the duo made 6 studio albums, all of them being hits. Everything was going smoothly for Outkast, until 2007.
After Outkast split up in 2007, Andre 3000 went quiet, only featuring sporadically on different artists’ songs and releasing a 2-track Mother’s Day EP in 2018 called ‘Look Ma No Hands’. The EP had a 17-minute instrumental track titled after the EP, but that will come into importance later. Andre is still highly regarded in the entertainment industry today, starring in many movies. A large portion of hip-hop fans thought Andre wouldn’t release any solo projects ever. But they were caught by surprise on November 14th, 2023.
Andre went to Instagram to announce his debut studio album titled “New Blue Sun”. Andre also released a statement on his website which states “New Blue Sun represents a continuation of adventure and discovery for me. Even inherent in the meaning of my name André 3000, there is a wonder or looking forward to the new or what is next. This discovery has happened many times in my life and career and it’s very exciting to witness. I say ‘witness’ because I am also watching it happen along with you all and I never really know what will come or how I will respond or interpret the inspiration. We all have aspirations, ideas, or plans but isn’t it the most awesome when life surprises us in a way that becomes greater than anything we could have imagined? New Blue Sun and the process in which it was recorded is that discovery and witnessing being played out in real-time, alive, breathing, and improvised. It’s much more than ‘Andre’s Flute album’. Ha.” Andre also explained that he released the album as a way to legally keep his trademarks.
New Blue Sun consists of 8 tracks, having a total runtime of 87 minutes, and only contains flute-playing and other digital woodwind instruments. The opening track is hilariously titled ‘I swear, I Really Wanted To Make A “Rap” Album But This Is Literally The Way The Wind Blew Me This Time.’ As we can see, Andre is going all in with his creativity, not caring about the expectations or wants but making what he enjoys and what other people will enjoy.
I’ve taken a listen to the project myself and I think this is a really solid instrumental album. Although I was hoping it was a hip-hop album initially, it blew down my expectations in a great way. Other than a couple of controversial song titles, this project is great, well-produced, and well-promoted.
