‘New Ways’
The rap artist-flutist picked up a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year for his latest project New Blue Sun
André 3000 has more music in the pipeline for next year. Although he didn’t specify if he’ll return to the rap game, the musician said “new music for sure” is coming and that he would continue to find “new ways to distribute and express” his music in 2025, in an interview with Amazon Music released Monday.
“I don’t wanna pinpoint what it is, but I just want to express more,” André said, sidestepping discussion about when a new project will be released. “Put it like that.”
André released his 87-minute, flute-driven debut solo album New Blue Sun in November 2023. It was the rap lyricist’s first album since releasing The Love Below as part of OutKast in 2003. Over the weekend, he performed his experimental album during a sunset set at Tyler, the Creator’s Camp Flog Gnaw festival.
Before his performance at Camp Flog Gnaw, André 3000 embarked on a fall tour that began in New Orleans on Sept. 19 and included stops in San Diego, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Salt Lake City.
Earlier this month, André picked up a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year and Best Alternative Jazz Album for New Blue Sun. André also snagged a nomination in the Best Instrumental Composition category for his opening track off the album, “I Swear, I Really Wanted to Make a ‘Rap’ Album But This Is Literally the Way the Wind Blew Me This Time.” His Album of the Year nod was a wild card, with Rolling Stone’s Christian Hoard calling his departure from the rap genre, “an odyssey that’s sunny, contemplative, and weirdly inspiring.”