Last year, former Outkast member André 3000 released his first solo album of all time but shocked fans by dropping an eight-track instrumental project comprised of original flute compositions.
The album, entitled New Blue Sun, shocked and slightly disappointed fans who were looking forward to a return of the rapping André 3000 of the 2000s. However, during a recent performance of the LP, he let the crowd know that his deviation from hip-hop wasn’t a planned move.
André 3000 (real name André Benjamin) recently delivered a recital of the project at the Luna Luna art exhibition in Los Angeles. Following the event, a fan-captured video of the performance circulated on social media, and the lyricist explained why New Blue Sun came to fruition.
Speaking to the crowd, Benjamin addressed the reaction to the project, stating, “‘How you just gon’ be rapping and then just get on stage playing fucking flutes? Like, I didn’t plan to be the flute n*gga,”
He continued, “I didn’t plan to be that. It just kinda, like, it happened. When I started rapping, I didn’t know what it would be. It was just me and Big Boi at the crib watching rap videos. Then we was like, ‘Let’s try it.’ I know we have plans. I know we go to school. We have intentions, we plan for things – but we all freestyling. We all making this shit up as we go along. We have intentions, but we don’t really know.”
He explained that all of the music he made was by accident and that he had always just gone with the flow. Earlier this year, in an interview with High Snobiety, André 3000 recalled Big Boi’s reaction to New Blue Sun.
Explaining how there were no qualms from his longtime friend and collaborator, Benjamin detailed, “He was smiling. He was like, ‘Man!’” Benjamin also explained why he chose not to rap on his latest project, stating, “I swear, I really wanted to make a rap album, but this is literally the way the wind blew me this time.”
You can see the fan-captured video below.