Seventeen years after his last solo offering, André 3000, one-half of the legendary hip-hop duo OutKast, has re-emerged.
With little fanfare, the Atlanta artist, considered by many as one of the best rappers alive, presents an opus without the anticipated bars and beats but as an ethereal instrumental album, New Blue Sun. This nearly 90-minute journey, spanning eight epic-length tracks, dives deep into a world where traditional musical boundaries dissolve and the unspoken takes center stage. It signifies an unexpected creative shift, echoing OutKast's tradition of defying genres by blending hip-hop with elements of funk, psychedelia, R&B, and gospel. This clever fusion, a hallmark of the duo, revolutionized not only Southern rap but the entire spectrum of American music.
OutKast's impact on shaping postmodern Southern identity is profound and enduring. Their work, exploring themes of Blackness, urbanism, southern aesthetics, gender, and Afrofuturism, has been a cornerstone in expanding the vision of the contemporary South beyond long-held archetypes of a Jim Crow past. The duo, emerging from the Georgian capital's vibrant hip-hop scene in the early 1990s, redefined the G-Funk and Dirty South styles with strong melodies, intricate lyrics, and precise storytelling. Their refusal to adhere to hip-hop norms from their debut album Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik (1994) marked them as unquestioned genre pioneers. This continued through albums like ATLiens (1996) and Aquemini (1998) - a staple of this writer's playlist since it was released - and Stankonia (2000), which explored themes of spirituality, identity, and social issues. The double album Speakerboxxx/The Love Below (2006) particularly highlighted their creative versatility, mixing rap, funk, R&B, and pop and providing an initial foray into solo release territory. This is particularly true of André 3000's The Love Below, where the neo-swing of global smashes Roses and Hey Ya stood in place of the rapid-fire delivery of, say, Bombs over Baghdad or Rosa Parks.
With New Blue Sun, the emotional fabric is still rich and complex. Each track, with its whimsical titles (some might say that the bars they're searching for live here), invites listeners into a world oscillating between tranquility and chaos. André's array of flutes, from the contrabass to the digital, serve as the experiential core, weaving through each composition with an ethereal quality that is grounding and liberating in equal measure. It is a world where the jazz ambience of Alice Coltrane, Pharoah Saunders, and Kamasi Washington frolic with therapeutic minimalist experimentation of Jon Hopkins’ Music For Psychedelic Therapy or Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works Volume II.
The album opens with the introspective weight of I Swear, I Really Wanted to Make a 'Rap' Album but This Is Literally the Way the Wind Blew Me This Time, a track that sets the tone for exploration beyond the spoken word. Aside from André, it features instrumentalists Carlos Niño (also co-producer), Nate Mercereau, and Surya Botofasina in a collaborative effort to fuse spiritual jazz with compositional minimalism. The result? Upbeat, active, yet serene, like a city stroll at dawn.
Tracks like The Slang Word P(*)ssy Rolls Off the Tongue With Far Better Ease Than the Proper Word Vagina. Do You Agree? and Ninety Three 'Til Infinity and Beyoncé offer a semblance of familiarity within the album's experimental milieu. The former is a serene, lyrical piece, layering woodwinds, electric piano, and chimes in a harmonious blend. Here, André delves into a more conventional structure while maintaining the experimental core. The latter bridges the gap between André's rap legacy, his present experimental inclinations, and Stevie Wonder-esque keys, with a 3:49-minute breather amid the album's extensive selections.
Conversely, 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, and the 13-minute BuyPoloDisorder's Daughter Wears a 3000® Button Down Embroidered epitomize the album's purely adventurous side. The former is a transformative piece with a title suggesting a sense of the mystical and untamed, structured through an ancient Asian chord progression. The latter narrates a journey from enigmatic depths to ethereal heights, embodying an odyssey from darkness to enlightenment. Commencing with an intricate display of flute melodies soon enveloped in a blend of dense, almost foreboding sounds, the track creates an immersive auditory landscape that gradually transitions into sections filled with lighter, airy synths.
In tracks like the droning Ghandi, Dalai Lama, Your Lord & Savior J.C. / Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, and John Wayne Gacy and Ants to You, Gods to Who? André explores more philosophical themes. The contrasting figures referenced in the titles suggest an exploration of morality, albeit set against a haunted, otherworldly aura.
The album culminates with its longest track, Dreams Once Buried Beneath the Dungeon Floor Slowly Sprout into Undying Gardens. Rather than a definitive end, this track feels like an opening to a myriad of possibilities, reflecting the album's ethos of constant evolution and discovery as its fusion of acoustic and electronic instrumentation reaches its zenith.
New Blue Sun stands as the ultimate testament to André 3000's artistic risk-taking. With some digging, we see that it may not have come out of nowhere (his flute has been featured on tracks by Swae Lee and Frank Ocean, uncredited). Nevertheless, it marks a significant departure from the energetic and innovative rap styles that defined his tenure with OutKast. Instead, it emphasizes the vibrant power of sound in the absence of the spoken word, morphing New Blue Sun into an aural organism – and one with an obviously profound therapeutic effect on its creator.
