Outkast, the hip-hop duo consisting of Andre 3000 and Big Boi, has been disassembled for nearly 15 years. Although their run was abruptly cut short, the group had plenty of success in albums such as Aquemini and Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, the latter becoming the most-sold rap album of all time, being certified platinum 13 times and containing singles like “Hey Ya!” and “I Love the Way You Move.” After breaking up, Big Boi continued his career with several albums, but Andre has only done features on other artists’ work and never put out a solo project. This was until November 14, when Andre 3000 revealed a new project that he had been working on that would arrive on the 17th. The catch? Andre would not be rapping and, instead, the album will be composed of woodwind instrumentals as an ambient piece.
In the interview with NPR, where Andre originally revealed the album, he elaborated on how he decided to show music to the public: “It’s not like I don’t try or it’s not like I have a lot of these songs just sitting — I have songs but it’s not like rap things that I really feel happy about sharing. And really, that’s the most important part. I have to feel happy about sharing it.”
While he does still want to rap at certain points, like on the recent song “SCIENTISTS & ENGINEERS” by Killer Mike, this woodwind album spoke to him and he wanted to pursue it more. 3000 also said that he had played some of the music off the album for artists Tyler, the Creator, and Frank Ocean, and both had shown positive feelings toward it.
After a not-so-long wait, the album New Blue Sun released at a runtime of 87 minutes. The titles of each track are very long and somewhat poetic. For example, the first track is titled “I swear, I Really Wanted To Make A ‘Rap’ Album But This Is Literally The Way The Wind Blew Me” and it is 12 minutes long. Due to it being an ambient album, it puts effort into forming an atmosphere for the listener, making it some of Andre’s lightest music he has put out. According to the New York Times, Andre took influence from Laraaji, Alice Coltrane, Steve Reich, and many others.
Even with its odd nature to mainstream crowds, New Blue Sun was able to outsell many releases from other popular artists, such as both Magic 2 and Magic 3 by Nas, Welcome 2 Collegrove by Lil Wayne and 2 Chainz, and When I Was Dead by Kodak Black. With newfound success in ambient music, Andre 3000 has a lot of options for his next releases. According to what is found in the album, rapping is still on the table. There is also the other question of how this album will influence rappers to expand into different genres, but with that, only time can tell.