André 3000 Announces 'New Blue Sun,' 1st Album In 17 Years

Andre 3000 – Source: Andrew Toth / Getty

Believe it or not, André 3000 has announced a new album titled New Blue Sun which will be completely instrumental.

In recent years, every sighting of André 3000 involves him playing his flute and just vibing out while minding his business. Seeing him with an instrument has been enough to keep us hopeful for new music from the ATLien and earlier today (Nov. 14), André took to Instagram to announce he will finally release his first album in 17 years. 3 Stacks revealed his album New Blue Sun will arrive Friday, Nov. 17.

However, there are a few important details you should know about the new project.

According to NPR’s Rodney Carmichael who interviewed Andre 3000, the project is a mind-bending “minimalist, experimental, tribal and transcendent” 87 minutes inside the mind of André Benjamin. Additionally, the record will not have any bars, bass, or beats. What it will have is André 3000 playing his flute, every last one of them.

If you’re wondering how we got here 3000 admits that he tried to make that rap album y’all wanted and Believe it or not, that’s the title of the first of 8 songs on the album.

André 3000 New Blue Sun Tracklist:

1. “I swear, I Really Wanted To Make A “Rap” Album But This Is Literally The Way The Wind Blew Me This Time”

2. “The Slang Word P*ssy Rolls Off The Tongue With Far Better Ease Than The Proper Word Va*ina . Do You Agree?”

3. “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”

4. “BuyPoloDisorder’s Daughter Wears A 3000™ Button Down Embroidered”

5. “Ninety Three ‘Til Infinity And Beyoncé”

6. “Ghandi, Dalai Lama, Your Lord & Savior J.C. / Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, And John Wayne Gacy”

7. “Ants To You, Gods To Who ?”

8. “Dreams Once Buried Beneath The Dungeon Floor Slowly Sprout Into Undying Gardens”

While describing the project, Andre 3000 said that fellow artists Tyler The Creator and Frank Ocean weighed in on it. According to the rapper, New Blue Sun helped Tyler rearrange a wall of artwork in his house and Frank Ocean approved of it as well.

“Tyler was staring at this thing that he has in his house. Like, he’s a fan of travel suitcases and so he has a wall of like travel suitcases. And he was like, “Man, I’ve been trying to figure out how to configure these like Louis suitcases.” And he was listening to one of the songs and he was like, “It sounds like you’re chasing a butterfly through a garden and I figured it out. It helped me to figure out how to do this,” he told NPR. 

“And I think Frank pointed out one of his favorite tracks out of the three.”

While everyone wanted a new rap album from 3 Stacks this is about as good as it will get and for good reason. Back in 2019 he joined Rick Rubin on his Broken Record podcast and explained where he was with creating music, according to Rap-Up.

“I haven’t been making much music, man,” said the 44-year-old rapper. “My focus is not there, my confidence is not there.”

While he “tinkers” in the studio, he hasn’t found the inspiration. “I haven’t been motivated to do a serious project,” he added. “I’d like to, but it’s just not coming. In my own self, I’m tryna figure out where do I sit. I don’t even know what I am and maybe I’m nothing. Maybe I’m not supposed to be anything.”

Even if it’s not what anyone expected, at the end of the day André 3000 is still an artist blessing us with his new art. It will be worth streaming, and who knows, he might be what inspires the next direction in Hip-Hop.