This is just great. Listen to these two interviews back to back, and you actually hear history unfolding. Through human struggle, art.
The first interview from 2019, with Rick Rubin.
The other interview from now-ish, with NPR.
Some background:
André 3000 released a new album, New Blue Sun. Here it is.
I remember very vividly, some four years ago, listening to an extremely open interview with Rick Rubin where André 3000 talks about feeling stuck. ‘Where do I sit?’ he asks, ‘maybe my history is handicapping in a sort of way’, meaning his succes with Outkast as obstruction to a free way forward. He wondered ‘what makes me feel the best right now?’ and he started this ‘random instrumental kind of thing.’ ‘They make me feel the most rebellious (…) I have to honor that in a way.’
Then, at around the 33 min mark, when asked about his meditation practice, the bass clarinet makes its entrance - ‘I started messing around with bass clarinet - and it’s a breathing kind of thing.’
All in anticipation of what is to follow, to what is 'now.'
Then, he is drawn to something Rubin says:
‘That’s interesting you say, you don’t have to be new to make new… I agree…’ and he asks:
‘Are there any examples of like bands or groups that have made new things when they’ve been around for a long time?’
The examples Rubin gives, Kid A by Radiohead and Yeezus by Kanye West aren’t quite what he’s looking for. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band resonates more. There, The Beatles decided to become a different band to free themselves, to make something new. But still, it does seem if it’s in the same ‘trajectory,’ it still isn’t quite what he's looking for. And that's probably logical.
The example André 3000 was looking for, didn’t exist yet.
The example that André 3000 was looking for, André 3000 just released.
And it is amazing.
It's all in the title of the first song:
I swear, I Really Wanted To Make A “Rap” Album But This Is Literally The Way The Wind Blew Me This Time
'You gotta move out the way' and let yourself be blown by the wind, and let that be the way. However, as André 3000 says, 'you gotta work for moving out the way.'
Extra:
ANOTHER great interview