The year is 2006, the New York Times recently described Outkast as the, “biggest selling and most critically adored hip hop act of the last decade.” Their last album Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, which included the hit Hey Ya, sold 11 million copies and won three grammys.
But things don’t feel the same as they once were with the ATliens.
In a 2006 interview with MTV Andre said this about the future of his music career, “I don’t have the pulse anymore. It’s not exciting to me…” The group that had sat atop the rap world didn’t want to make music anymore. And in 2007, Outkast announced a hiatus from music, after the release of their sixth album and musical film of the same name, Idlewild. The hiatus would only last three years for Antwan Patton, known as Big Boi, who released the solo album Sir Lucious Left Foot in July of 2010. The case wouldn’t be the same for Andre 3000. Andre Benjamin would go on a sixteen year hiatus, going missing for the entirety of the 2010’s, until 2023 when he released his first ever solo project “New Blue Sun.”
“New Blue Sun” isn’t what you’d expect from a rapper from the deep south, it’s an 87-minute instrumental flute album.
On “New Blue Sun,” Andre uses a combination of synthesized flute and Andre’s custom wooden Mayan double flute made of two resonate pipes. “New Blue Sun” embodies what it means to reinvent yourself. It is the encapsulation of metamorphosis and the creation for the sake of creation, not for the sake of revenue. Nobody truly wanted a flute album other than Andre himself, so he made it.
The opening track,“I Swear, I Really Wanted to Make a ‘Rap’ Album but This Is Literally the Way the Wind Blew Me This Time,” brings an immediate ethereal sounding experience to the project. The backing synth sounds almost eerie behind the dancing melody of the Mayan flute. There is an odd collection of percussion instruments on this track including gongs, maracas, and a ride cymbal. But what was I expecting from a purely flute based album?
In track two there is an aesthetic overlap, the chords are airier and melt into each other more fluidly. And the sparse and stuttering synth leads don’t really bring a whole lot to the table. Track two wasn’t my particular favorite, and the only vibe I was picking up from it was an underwhelming yoga track.
Track three is a complete change of pace with some shamanistic drums repeating throughout much of the track accompanied by wandering woodwind tones. And it is evocative for its time, but I think Andre and his collaborators lack either the chops or the cohesion to keep this energy up with interesting nuances. By the midpoint of the track the leads start getting sporadic and awkward, and they eventually break out the rain stick. I have nothing against this genre of music, I just don’t know why Andre feels the need to play into its biggest clichés.
The fourth track ended up being one of my favorites so far because of how unpredictable and open the whole thing feels on the free improv front. It is a multiphase performance that is ambient in tone, but there are so many interesting changes that are going on compositionally, chord-progression-wise and melodically, that just kept me on the edge of my seat. It’s a welcome contrast from other tracks on this record that feel like they’re heading into the unknown but also going nowhere fast.
Track six is even better and is possibly the darkest track on the record, with some droning, unnerving tones layering up in the background, and some strange woodwind arpeggios sitting on top of that just kind of spiraling over and over like a stairwell going down forever. This piece really finds a good balance between repetition and progression.
The final, and longest, track on the record goes back into that kind of undefined area encountered on tracks two and three. When I listen to this track I feel less like I’m listening to a musical work as much as I’m existing in a place. This track feels like the truest to its title “Dreams Once Buried Beneath the Dungeon Floor Slowly Sprout Into Undying Grass,” because it really sounds like you’re entering into an otherworldly realm or transcending this reality at the very least.
While I wasn’t head over heels for this project, it’s an admirable shift for Andre 3000. I would give “New Blue Sun” a light to decent seven. My favorite tracks were Tracks four, six, and eight. I am excited to see what comes from Andre 3000’s career in years to come and if he will ever return to his roots of hip hop and rap or if he will continue to embrace this new path of instrumental flute.
