André 3000 has been honing his flute skills for years yet he apparently still doesn’t know what musical notes he’s playing with the wood instrument.
Three Stacks sat down with CBS Mornings earlier this week in support of his bar-free New Blue Sun album and expanded on his connection with the flute and his collection of 30 woodwind instruments.
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“I’ve gotten so used to it I kinda have a muscle memory of holding [the flute],” he said of carrying his go-to instrument around. “When I’m walking with people that’s what they say, ‘I feel like I’m in my movie.’
“I don’t even know what notes I’m playing so every move for me is new,” he continued, “Which is kinda crazy but it feels great to do it. Because when you find things you’re like, ‘Oh!'”
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André 3000 continued to credit Hip Hop for his passion for discovering new sounds: “It’s like a reward for searching. I think that’s a Hip Hop thing, to be honest. Because Hip Hop you immediately take something in and put it back out.”
Watch the clip starting around the 2:55 mark below.
https://youtu.be/oUtQYOSMqnM
According to HITS Daily Double, New Blue Sun opened with 24,244 album equivalent units sold in its first week. The project ultimately debuted at No. 34 on the Billboard 200 charts following its release.
While some like The LOX want to see Three Stacks rap again, Big Gipp congratulated the Atlanta native for taking a risk which he believes paved the way for a new genre to emerge.
“André 3000 just opened a new genre for Hip Hop producers and Hip Hop people who play instruments. Remember, Miles Davis never said nothing to you. Kenny G don’t say nothing to you,” the Goodie Mob rapper said last month.
“It’s so many examples of just musicians who had a great amount of success that said nothing to you and played an instrument,” he continued. “I feel like, again, this is never about us competing with nobody.”
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Gipp went on to add that Hip Hop artists have an obligation to continue pushing each other as well as the genre so as to create a safe space for aspiring artists and musicians to “break the rules.”
Big Gipp also applauded the OutKast’s rapper’s decision to drop an album without any lyrics, saying: “Nobody in New York, nobody in L.A. would say dropping an instrumental album would be the most popular thing to do. Guess what? I think in an era with so much maddening and misdirection and energy, I think it was almost the perfect thing to do.”
