New Blue Sun (Album)

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    André 3000 on 3 Grammy Nods for ‘New Blue Sun’: ‘Super Duper Cool’

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    He was half of Outkast, the last rap act to win album of the year — 20 years ago. His latest nominations are for “New Blue Sun,” an expression of ultimate freedom.An album of the year nomination at the Grammys? André 3000 has been here before.Two decades ago, he and his Outkast partner Big Boi won the prize for “Speakerboxxx/The Love Below,” their multifaceted hip-hop opus that became a crossover pop breakout. This year, though, André has been recognized for something quite different: “New Blue Sun,” the improvisational flute-led album he released last November, which on Friday was honored with nods in three categories: best alternative jazz album, best instrumental composition and, perhaps most shocking, album of the year, competing against Beyoncé, Billie Eilish, Taylor Swift and pop’s heaviest hitters.The album is a thoughtful musical excursion and also a statement of creative purpose — a demonstration that even one of the most storied figures in pop music can rewrite their own script in real time. André 3000 has spent the bulk of this year touring with the band who recorded the album, putting jazz-influenced experimental music on grand stages around the world. But he’s still working far from the pop and hip-hop forms that formed the foundation for his success. Relative anonymity is a trade-off he was willing to make for creative freedom, but the reception to the album has also shown that fans — and now Grammy voters — are interested in welcoming him back to the spotlight.After gathering his thoughts early Friday afternoon, André 3000 spoke about how the seed for his current adventure was planted back in the Outkast era, using the audience as an instrument, and what it’s like to make it all up as you go. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.Big day. Where were you when you heard?I’m in Virginia today, we’re playing tonight. I was just waking up and I heard that the nominations came in. We were trying to be nominated in some type of way for alternative jazz or ambient, possibly. But I was totally surprised by this. So yeah, it was super, super, super duper cool.We’re 20 years past “Speakerboxxx/The Love Below” winning album of the year, and it’s the last rap album to take that top prize. Do you think that’s still on voters’ minds? That they’re seeing your creative evolution?We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      André 3000 Brings His Solo Album ‘New Blue Sun’ to the Stage

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      Performing live for the first time with musicians from his solo LP, the onetime Outkast rapper played various flutes, said little and tried to change perceptions.Toward the end of his late set Wednesday night at the Blue Note in Manhattan, André 3000 said he and members of his band had gone to an instrument shop earlier in the day and picked up some new toys. He showed off his haul: something he’d thought was a flute, but turned out to be part of a bagpipe.Nevertheless, he persisted. He blew through it, and what came out was sonorous and weird. A kind of sexy skronk. He looked at the long, thin tube with a nod of admiration. “This got something serious in it,” he remarked, before chuckling just a bit, and blowing even harder.This is how André 3000 — one of the most gifted rappers of all time, and one of the true pop pathbreakers of the 2000s — communicates now. In November, he released “New Blue Sun,” an improvised album of experimental music on which he plays a variety of flutes. It reached No. 34 on the Billboard album chart, demonstrating what happens when decades of pent-up curiosity about a reluctant star meets art that demands curiosity, close attention and perhaps the benefit of the doubt. For fans, it reinforced the idea of André as a mystic beyond the pull of ego.“I think I’m blessed with being oblivious,” he said Monday night at Crown Hill Theater in Brooklyn, performing his first show under his name alone. “It kind of keeps you pure.”“New Blue Sun” is sometimes entrancing, sometimes frustrating. It is perhaps less a purely musical project than a philosophical or emotional proposition expressed through music. In many sections, you hardly hear André or his flute at all. Its arrival was greeted with awe and relief, and also conversations about the virtues of amateurism, and the right of a celebrity to recalibrate the terms of his fame.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      André 3000’s Experiments With Flutes and Fame

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      Subscribe to Popcast!Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon MusicThis month, André 3000 — half of Outkast, and one of the most innovative rappers of all time — made a tentative return to music with the release of his first solo album, “New Blue Sun.” It is … not a hip-hop album. Instead, André, who has regularly been spotted out and about playing one of several flutes, has released an LP of contemplative experimental music, in which he is a supporting character, not the star.What does it mean when one of the most famous musicians of his generation decides to take such a radical creative turn? In what ways is this unconventional musical choice as revealing as the ones for which he’s long been known?On this week’s Popcast, a conversation about André’s reluctant relationship to stardom, the musical scene providing the setting for his public return, and the ways in which one can be in the spotlight but still very much in hiding.Guests:Zach Baron, GQ senior special projects editorSadie Sartini Garner, a critic for Pitchfork and othersConnect With Popcast. Become a part of the Popcast community: Join the show’s Facebook group and Discord channel. We want to hear from you! Tune in, and tell us what you think at popcast@nytimes.com. Follow our host, Jon Caramanica, on Twitter: @joncaramanica. More