André 3000 Set To Release First New Album in 17 Years

Deana Lawson

It goes without saying that André 3000 has proven to be one of Hip-Hop’s biggest enigmas over the last few years.

One minute, he’s dropping some of the hottest 16s in the genre, proving why the former Outkast lyricist is one of the greats despite not releasing an album in years. The next, he’s randomly among the public, playing the flute in the middle of an airport. Spotting Three Stacks now-a-days has been pretty much the rap equivalent of “Where’s Waldo?”

Dre’s latest sighting, in a new NPR interview published Tuesday, is literally breaking the internet with a bit of good news: He’s dropping his first album in 17 years (and first ever solo album), New Blue Sun, and it’s coming this Friday, November 17.

However, if you’re expecting hot bars and booming bass, you’re in for surprise.

You won’t hear André rap, sing, or even talk on the record. What you will hear are flutes…. LOTS of flutes.

In the NPR interview, André (who says he owns about 40 flutes in total) talks about releasing this album after feeling years of pressure from Hip-Hop fans to put out an album, as well as the pressure he sometimes put on himself.

I’m a writer, and not necessarily a pen and pad writer, but I construct and architect verses in a way. That’s what I’ve been doing all my life. So I look at it in that way, and if I’m not satisfied with what it is I just don’t put it out. Even during the earlier times, Big Boi, he just kind of got down, like, he’s so fast and efficient with what he does. And it’ll take me a minute to throw them down. So I’ve always kind of been analyzing it or figuring out how I wanted to approach it. So, in these times, it just comes harder for me to do it and I don’t know why. I mean I try it all the time. 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. That’s why New Blue Sun was something that I realized, whoa, I really want people to hear it. I really want to share it. That’s my only gauge. I have to like it as a person, as an artist myself, because if I don’t like it I can’t expect nobody else to like it. I can’t pretend in that way. That’s always been hard for me.

Social media users were up in arms upon hearing the word that André was putting out any album, let alone an entire project of nothing but instrumental music. While there were some who were a bit disappointed that he won’t be spitting on the mic, there are others who are just happy that he’s making music again. We’ll let you check it out for yourself.

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