André 3000 reveals the music that restored his creativity
There’s no denying that André 3000 is a man of many talents, but even then, upon release of his last project, fans were taken aback that his long-awaited debut solo album turned out to be an instrumental collection of flute songs.
Widely regarded as one of his generation’s finest rappers, the majority of the musician’s fans were hoping that he’d stick to the genre that brought him so much success when he finally took the plunge to record and release a solo record. That’s not to say New Blue Sun isn’t good, it just wasn’t what anyone was expecting.
After all, as part of Outkast he was responsible for six critically acclaimed and commercially successful albums, winning countless trophies along the way and shifting millions upon millions of copies. He was hardly prolific as a solo act, though, even if he did regularly collaborate with other performers.
André ended up placing more focus on his acting career than his musical one for a while, which brought him plenty of success when he co-starred alongside Mark Wahlberg in Four Brothers, Will Ferrell in Semi-Pro, lent support in Claire Denis’ High Life, and played Jimi Hendrix in All Is by My Side.
A man of many talents, he can sing, rap, play guitar, keyboards, saxophone and many more, so it’s not really surprising he’d become so enamoured with his unexpected reinvention as a flautist. As he explained during an appearance on HBO’s The Shop, it was a natural progression, even if he doesn’t want to be pigeonholed as a jazz guy.
“I don’t take myself that serious,” he said. “Jazz is a studied music so I kind of just try to humanize. It’s so elitist in ways. A lot of jazz cats went to school. I don’t want people to think I’m trying to be a jazz musician.”
Describing himself as a “sonic displayist” instead, André elaborated on what his jazz evolution has meant to him personally. “I don’t know what notes I’m playing to be completely honest,” he continued. “I don’t know what I’m doing and that’s part of the art. This is most free I’ve ever been. We really don’t know where we gonna go. And it’s kinda like you have to feel it out. It’s really an exploratory thing, man.”
Instead of being guided by the lyrics, André is now being steered by the music, which has restored and reinforced his creativity as a result.