By newsfirstusa 
NEW YORK — No person used to be anticipating it. Overdue latter month, André 3000 exempt his debut solo booklet, “New Blue Sun,” 18 years nearest his mythical rap group Outkast’s latter studio booklet, “Idlewild.”
However “New Blue Sun” has “no bars,” he jokes. It’s a rerouting from rap as a result of “there was nothing I was liking enough to rap about, or I didn’t feel it sounded fresh. I’m not about to serve you un-fresh (expletive.)”
Rather, he presented up a six-track instrumental booklet of ambient alt-jazz — with particular consideration paid to the flute.
“The sound, that’s how I got into it,” he says of the device. “The portability, too. You can’t tote around a piano and play in Starbucks.”
He’s also invested in the flute’s history — like learning about Mayan flutes made from clay, a design he had re-created in cedarwood. “There’s all kinds of fables and, you know, indigenous stories that go along with playing the flute — playing like the birds or playing your heart like the wind — it kind of met (me) where I was in life,” he says.
“Flutes — wind instruments in general — are the closest thing you get to actually hearing a human,” he continues. “You’re actually hearing the breath of a person.”
“New Blue Sun” is a splendid assortment, one who has earned André 3000 3 untouched Grammy Award nominations: booklet of the month, additional jazz, and instrumental composition. The ones begin precisely 25 years nearest the 1999 Grammys, the place Outkast gained their first nomination — for “Rosa Parks,” from their 3rd booklet, “Aquemini” — and 20 years after the group won album of the year for “Speakerboxxx/The Love Below.”
“It matters because we all want to be acknowledged or recognized,” André 3000 says of his untouched Grammy nominations. “It’s a type of proof of connection, in some type of way … especially with the Grammys, because it’s voted on by a committee of musicians and people in the industry.”
He’s a little bit stunned by means of the eye, too, given the kind of booklet he created. “We have no singles on the radio, not even singles that are hot in the street,” he says. “When you’re sitting next to Beyoncé and Taylor Swift, these are highly, hugely popular music artists, I’m satisfied just because of that … we won just to be a part of the whole conversation.”
He theorizes that it may be because popular music listening habits are broadening. “A lot of artists are just trying different things. Even, you know, the album that Beyoncé is nominated for, it’s not her normal thing,” he says of her country-and-then-some file, “Cowboy Carter.” “We’re on this park the place issues are more or less moving and shifting.”
For André 3000, “New Blue Sun” has allowed him to “feel like a whole new artist,” but it is also an extension of who he’s always been. “Being on the road with Outkast and picking up a bass clarinet at a pawn shop in New York and just sitting on the back of the bus playing with it — these things have been around,” he says.
He’s also always embraced “newness,” as he puts it, experimenting creatively “even if it sounds non-masterful.”
“Even producing for Outkast, I was just learning these instruments. If I … put my hands down and play ‘Ms. Jackson,’ I’m not knowing what I’m playing. But I like it,” he says.
As for a untouched Outkast booklet, “I never say never,” he says. “But I can say that the older I get, I feel like that time has happened.”
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The 67th Grammy Awards will likely be held Feb. 2, 2025, at Crypto.com Area in Los Angeles. The display will wind on CBS and tide on Paramount+. For extra protection, talk over with https://apnews.com/hub/grammy-awards.