André 3000 is releasing his first album in over 17 years, but the content might not be what you expect. “[Even] actually on the packaging, you’ll see it says, ‘Warning: no bars,’” he explains in a new interview with NPR. New Blue Sun, releasing on November 17, is not a rap album at all. Instead, it’s an improvisational instrumental album wherein André plays the flute alongside other jazz musicians.
“I would love to be out here playing with everybody, but it’s just not happening for me,” he says of writing rap verses. “This is the realest thing that’s coming right now. Not to say that I would never do it again, but those are not the things that are coming right now. And I have to present what’s given to me at the time.”
To compensate for the lack of lyrics on New Blue Sun, the eight-song tracklist has a set of whimsical titles that serve as disclaimer and guidepost—a way to “humanize it or punkatize or like make it less precious,” André says. The list is as follows:
01 I Swear, I Really Wanted to Make a “Rap” Album but This Is Literally the Way the Wind Blew Me This Time
02 The Slang Word P(*)ssy Rolls Off the Tongue With Far Better Ease Than the Proper Word Vagina . Do You Agree
03 That Night in Hawaii When I Turned Into a Panther and Started Making These Low Register Purring Tones That I Couldn’t Control ... Sh¥t Was Wild
04 BuyPoloDisorder’s Daughter Wears a 3000® Button Down Embroidered
05 Ninety Three ’Til Infinity And Beyoncé
06 Ghandi, Dalai Lama, Your Lord & Savior J.C. / Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, and John Wayne Gacy
07 Ants to You, Gods to Who
08 Dreams Once Buried Beneath the Dungeon Floor Slowly Sprout Into Undying Gardens
This new direction got the seal of approval from friends like Tyler the Creator and Frank Ocean, although André probably didn’t need it—he’s just happy when he’s playing the flute. (He owns 30 to 40 different flutes, by the way.) His biggest piece of advice to young artists is to explore and “keep pushing,” which is exactly what he seems to have done with New Blue Sun, and with his entire career.
“I didn’t know I’d be rapping. I didn’t know I’d start producing. I didn’t know I’d start singing. I didn’t know my style would go a certain way. I didn’t know I’d put a wig on. Like, I didn’t know none of this. So, I’m on the ride with y’all. I’m expecting anything just like y’all. I didn’t know I’d be playing a flute,” André said, noting that he’s in on the joke and understands how his sharp pivots might be perceived from the outside. “But that’s the cool and scary thing about it. And I think as an artist, you kind of got to put yourself out there to be prepared to respond. I’m a responding person. That’s what I am. I’m responding to what’s given to me. It’s responding to my contemporaries. It’s responding to what I love. It’s responding to what I don’t like. It’s responding to all of that.”