André 3000

Episode notes

(Photo: Daniel Huecias)

André 3000 is one of the greatest rappers to ever grace a microphone. He is, of course, one half of the Grammy winning rap group Outkast. Between the years of 1995 and 2006, He and his partner Big Boi released some of the most iconic rap records of all time. 

With each album, the duo showed that they could meld the intensely personal with the universal idiom of hip-hop without ever for a moment losing their sense of joy. 

Following the release of their last album Idlewild in 2006, Big Boi and André seemed to go their own way. Big Boi has recorded a bunch of great solo records. 

And André? Well, he’s done some acting, made a cartoon show and won a very big deal fashion design award for his line Benjamin Bixby. And maybe once or twice a year he records a perfect guest verse on someone else’s song. 

For a long time It seemed like maybe André may have retired from recording his own music. That’s until both unexpectedly and somehow completely unsurprisingly, people started posting videos on the internet of André playing the flute. Not in nightclubs, but at airports and on the sidewalk. And it was not a stunt, apparently. Everyone said he was gracious if someone said something, but he really just seemed to be doing it for himself.

Late last year André released an album called New Blue Sun. It’s an ambient spiritual jazz record where André plays the flute, and does not rap. 

In the last few months, André’s been talking about the record, doing interviews of a sort he hadn’t done in years. He’s also clearly proud of the music he’s made, and wants to share it. He’s touring, too, and the show is breathtaking. 

We are beyond thrilled to have André 3000 join us on the show to talk about New Blue Sun and how he got into playing the flute. He also gets into where he currently stands on rapping. Plus he talks with Jesse Thorn about his time was like working in the fashion world.