The “mythical encounter” André 3000 had with a Portland fan in 2021
A trip to a farmer’s market is a perfectly pleasant way to spend an afternoon. But for one young woman in Portland, Oregon, such a trip to market took a mythical turn some years ago, after she complimented a certain someone there on their exquisite flute-playing.
The woman in question, remembering this strange day in 2021 on her X account, wrote about how, at this particular Portland market, someone was there playing the flute beautifully. She approached the musician and told him that his playing was “very André 3000-esque”.
“That’s good,” the flute player replied, “I am André 3000”.
The woman, naturally, was very taken aback. As she explained on her X account, she had been hungover that day and wasn’t expecting to run into a world-famous rapper at a market close to her house. Who would?
Moreover, this occurred before André had shocked rap fans by releasing his flute album New Blue Sun in 2023. While she knew he could play the flute, having seen him posting videos of his skills on social media, it hadn’t yet become clear how accomplished a flautist he was.
In other words, she had absolutely no reason to expect that this person at the market was, in actual fact, that famous rapper from Outkast.
The woman claimed that she had long been a fan of André 3000, and this unexpected meeting did nothing to change her mind about that. While there is always the possibility of being disappointed by the experience of meeting a beloved artist, that’s not what happened here. She said he was “an awesome guy”.
André chatted with the woman for a little while before taking off again, playing his flute. The whole thing had “felt like a mythical encounter”, she explained, which seems a reasonable characterisation of what she experienced.
The woman added in the comments that André, too, had seemed to enjoy the encounter. The fact that she hadn’t initially recognised him seemed to please him. They “just talked about the flute and Portland” for a bit, and that was that. He hadn’t been treated like a superstar rapper, which, evidently, he appreciated.