André 3000 has entered a new phase of his life. On Friday, November 17, he released his debut solo album, New Blue Sun, which features exactly zero rapping.
Three Stacks is hanging up the mic and sticking to his flute, despite dishing out standout verses on songs like Killer Mike’s “Scientists & Engineers” and Kanye West’s “Life of the Party” from the deluxe version of Donda. The latter song recently earned him two Grammy nominations for best rap performance and best rap song. Rodney Carmichael of NPR called New Blue Sun earlier this week, calling it “a stunning 87-minute mind-bender, minimalist as well as experimental, tribal and transcendent.”
Later, André (real name André Lauren Benjamin) explained to GQ why he chose not to rap on his debut solo album in the magazine’s inaugural video cover story. I’ve collaborated with some of the most recent, up-and-coming, youthful, and traditional producers. I am constantly being beaten. I make a constant effort to write. Even now, some still believe that he is either holding these raps hostage or simply sitting on them.
I don’t have any songs like that. I don’t have anything to talk about in that way, so sometimes it feels really inauthentic for me to rap,” he remarked. “My age is 48. Not that age always determines what you rap about, but in certain cases it does. And what are you talking about, like, the things that happen in my life? “I have a colonoscopy to get done.” About what are you rapping? “My vision is getting worse.” Though there are some creative ways to say it.
Between 1994 and 2006, he and Big Boi put out six studio albums as members of Outkast; the most recent of these was Idlewild.
Apart from their 1994 debut album Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, Outkast released five other albums that peaked at No. 1 or No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums: 1996’s ATLiens, 1998’s Aquemini, 2000’s Stankonia, 2003’s Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, and 2006’s Idlewild.