André 3000 explains why it sometimes feels “inauthentic” to rap
For a new GQ story, the musician described his decision to switch from rapping to playing a woodwind flute.
André 3000 is gearing up to release New Blue Sun, his first album in 17 years. The project does not mark 3000's return to hip-hop — New Blue Sun is a woodwind-centric recording that contains no discernible vocals and a track called, "I swear, I Really Wanted To Make A 'Rap' Album But This Is Literally The Way The Wind Blew Me This Time."
But why? Well, in his new video cover story for GQ, André 3000 — who'll occasionally go viral for playing his flute in public — explained that it comes down to sometimes feeling like it's "inauthentic for me to rap."
“I’ve worked with some of the newest, freshest, youngest, and old-school producers. I get beats all the time. I try to write all the time," he said. "Even now people think, Oh, man, he’s just sitting on raps, or he’s just holding these raps hostage."
Except in reality, André 3000 said he "ain’t got no raps like that," mostly because he doesn't "have anything to talk about in that way."
"I’m 48 years old. And not to say that age is a thing that dictates what you rap about, but in a way it does. And things that happen in my life, like, what are you talking about?," he said, "‘I got to go get a colonoscopy.’ What are you rapping about? ‘My eyesight is going bad.’"
André 3000 added, "You can find cool ways to say it, but….”
That said, this isn't the first time André 3000's admitted to GQ Style in 2017 he no longer had a hold on the ever-evolving genre genre, explaining that he's been "trying to find out: What can I be excited about," because "I never was, to me, a great producer or a great writer or a great rapper. Rather, the latter has always been his Outkast counterpart, Big Boi.
"Rhythms change every generation. The intensity and the drums change," André 3000 said, before joking, "It’s kinda like watching your uncle dance.”
See what else André 3000 has to say about New Blue Sun to GQ here.