André Luren Benjamin, better known as André 3000, one half of the OutKast duo, has caused a stir in the hip-hop world with his latest album. Since the US rap duo went silent in 2007, only their iconic tracks such as »Hey Ya!« or »Ms. Jackson« have echoed into the present day. Now, André 3000 has released his first solo début album, which he calls »New Blue Sun«. The title of the first track anticipates what all OutKast fans have been looking forward to: »I swear, I really wanted to make a ›rap‹ album, but that is literally the way the wind blew me this time«. That’s why »New Blue Sun« doesn’t sound like 2000s East Coast/West Coast rap, but rather like calm New Age harmonies. There are no lyrics, just flutes—no beats and no hooks, instead the melodies flow into each other like watercolours. The tracks on the album are conspicuously long—almost 15 minutes on average. The titles are not made up of short, pithy phrases, rather André chooses whole sentences. Even though »New Blue Sun« is not what many would have expected, the album sounds exactly like what it is: a record by a rapper who is not chasing a commercial comeback to storm the charts, but rather doing what he feels like doing. After all, André 3000 doesn’t have to prove anything to anyone anymore.
New Blue Sun
