REVIEW: ANDRE 3000 - NEW BLUE SUN

4/5

We Love You, 3000.

A kind of blue. It's felt like forever (forever, ever? Forever, ever!) since the last time we heard an album from André 3000. Almost two decades to be almost exact, with 2016's 'Idelwild' soundtrack from the prince's of Atlanta, OutKast. Nah, make that the kings of the A. Big Boi has still been dropping records like a 'Royal Flush' since then, whilst 'Dré has become the best guest verse rapper of all-time. Not to mention all around top five, dead or alive. Big is ready for another 'Kast album, and so are we, boy. We still want to hear '10 The Hard Way'. We're fiending for the ATL's finest, so much that their 'Speakerboxxx/The Love Below' double header had just been certified 13 times platinum this year. Lucky enough for the best-selling rap album of all-time. One day we may hear new raps from André the giant, but as three-stacks told GQ's Zach Baron in the magazine's first ever video cover story feature in an LA laundromat, he's 48. What's he supposed to rap about? Going for a colonoscopy (please)? Until then, it's time for a 'New Blue Sun', and this new dawn is beautiful as you just let it play like the end of the day. 

"Flutes?" Like Dipset's Julez Santana with 'Diplomatic Immunity' for his own 'Monster Music' once said, 'From Me To U'. That's right, André three-stacks' latest record to add to the decks features no vocals, save those he blows through wonderful wood instruments. I guess, "I'll do the fingering", like Michael Fassbender literally playing with himself in Ridley Scott's 'Alien-Covenant'. But don't think this blows, André Benjamin brings boundless beauty and artistic impression to these long-winded (but in a good way), freewheeling pieces of improvisation with his session players Carlos Niño, Surya Botofasina, Nate Mercereau, Diego Gaeta, V.C.R and Matthewdavid. 17 years later on November the 17th, Benjamin begins again with an epic record for Epic Records. When he's not playing a flute atop a washing machine, or outside on the sidewalk, as his clothes are being cleaned and the world turns, he's sculpting and creating art he wants to remain thousands of years later. Not to mention all his fashion variants, as ants ('Ants to You, Gods to Who?') move his overalls in a colony of consumer sought after branded apparel ('BuyPoloDisorder's Daughter Wears a 3000® Button Down Embroidered'). But this piece of work in itself is already art, and probably one of the most mesmerizing pieces and portraits from the mainstream in a long time. Like Em and Elton, if you think 'Dré is playing career Russian roulette, then just cool it. One of Stacks' boys once told another one of his records would put an end to his career. That song was 'Hey Ya'. Ya! 

'I swear, I Really Wanted to Make a 'Rap' Album but This Is Literally the Way the Wind Blew Me This Time', André declares on the opening, from the jump. Yep, the album titles of this amazing ambient, new-age, spiritual jazz album are long-winded too. And we love it, like, 'The Slang Word P(*)ssy Rolls Off the Tongue with Far Better Ease Than the Proper Word Vagina . Do You Agree?' Yep, literally rolls off the tongue. Classic like the cover in Badu one-piece lime, this eight track, 80-plus minute affair is an experimental piece of minimalistic magic, sonic like the Sony imprint that is putting it out. 'That Night in Hawaii When I Turned into a Panther and Started Making These Low Register Purring Tones That I Couldn't Control ... Sh¥t Was Wild'. Amen to all of that. The 17-minute closing 'Dreams Once Buried Beneath the Dungeon Floor Slowly Sprout into Undying Gardens' have finally come true for a flautist who on the low-end theory has appeared on more records than you think. Setting scores for the Daniels' on the Oscar winning Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan movie 'Everything Everywhere All At Once', an epic piece of artwork in itself. For 'Ghandi, Dalai Lama, Your Lord & Savior J.C. / Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, and John Wayne Gacy' going 'Ninety Three 'Til Infinity and Beyoncé', this album ain't s###. As a matter of fact, it is the s###, stank you very much. Like yours doesn't. It's time to readily accept this, like Common's experimental 'Electric Circus' in retrospect and Mos Def's rocking 'New Danger' should have always been. Rappers have always pushed the envelope, this practically retired one has just folded it up into a paper plane instead and let it fly. My, oh my! Here comes the sun. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks:  'I swear, I Really Wanted to Make a 'Rap' Album but This Is Literally the Way the Wind Blew Me This Time',  'The Slang Word P(*)ssy Rolls Off the Tongue with Far Better Ease Than the Proper Word Vagina . Do You Agree?',  'That Night in Hawaii When I Turned into a Panther and Started Making These Low Register Purring Tones That I Couldn't Control ... Sh¥t Was Wild'.