“I Don’t Know What Else I Could Do”
Last month, Andre 3000 returned with his debut solo album New Blue Sun. The project represented the end of a very long drought in new releases from the legendary rapper. He hadn’t appeared extensively on a full-length album since the final Outkast project Idlewild in 2006. When he announced the new project he made sure that all his fans knew what to expect. He made it clear that there was no rapping, or no vocals of any kind on the project.
When the album did finally drop fans were somehow still surprised to find it contained nothing even resembling rap. The record is a long and indulgent ambient jazz instrumental album. Critics were mixed on the record with many praising Andre’s bold artistic risk. Others were less impressed and those more familiar with the genre felt that what he delivered wasn’t particularly innovative. But in a recent interview with CBS Mornings Andre seemed more concerned with what fans thought of the record than critics. Check out his full interview below.
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Andre 3000 On Fan Responses To His Album
Andre 3000 was surprised and seemingly let down by some of the fan reactions to his new album. “Even on the artwork it says, ‘No bars,’ so if you’re disappointed, man, I don’t know what else I could do. I don’t like that people are upset a little bit about it,” he says in the new interview. But part of him also seems to understand where fans are coming from. “If I were waiting for a thing for 17 years, a certain thing that I’m looking for and, something else shows up, I’d probably be upset too.”
Later in the interview he discusses still being considered a rapper at all. “To be a rapper, you gotta be rapping. I haven’t been rapping, like I don’t hang around the studio, I don’t sit and try to rap every day like when I was younger, and that’s all I did. I miss those times a lot, but life changes, life moves on.” What do you think of Andre 3000’s comments about fan responses to his new ambient jazz album? Let us know in the comment section below.
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