“Sometimes it feels inauthentic for me to rap because I don’t have anything to talk about in that way”: Why André 3000 isn’t rapping in his latest album, New Blue Sun
The musician answers the burning question in a new interview.
Image: Tommaso Boddi / Getty Images
OutKast star André 3000 has opened up about why he decided not to rap in his latest album, New Blue Sun.
- READ MORE: Black Friday deals 2023: Best early deals for music producers, DJs, beatmakers and musicians
Faced with the question of ‘why a woodwind album’, all André 3000 had to say was: [via GQ magazine]: “Why anything?”
“Why did we record these albums before in my career? It is just kind of: Those are the things that came,” says the rapper, who claims he’s more than aware of the expectations that accompany his first album in 17 years.
André 3000 even acknowledges the fact with the first song on his record, cheekily titled I swear, I Really Wanted To Make A ‘Rap’ Album But This Is Literally The Way The Wind Blew Me This Time.
“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 says.
“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,” the musician continues. “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, but….”
Released last Friday, 17 November, New Blue Sun is made up of eight tracks, featuring a variety of woodwind instruments, including contrabass flute, Mayan flutes, bamboo flutes as well as other digital wind instruments.
Listen to the album below.
