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Kelly Rissman
US News Reporter
Festivalgoers were left divided after attending André 3000’s All Points East set only to find that the rapper was playing the flute, and none of his Outkast hits.
The rap visionary, who is best known for being one half of the “Hey Ya!” hip hop duo, put down the mic in 2023 and released his debut solo record, New Blue Sun, which mostly features ambient soundscapes played on a Teotihuacan drone flute.
Ahead of the album’s release last year, the musician warned fans there would be “no bars” in an attempt to manage their expectations. Upon release, the record received mixed reviews, with American jazz magazine Downbeat saying “the music rarely rises above atmospheric noodling”, while Pitchfork awarded it Best New Album.
André 3000, real name André Lauren Benjamin, has been touring that album this summer – but some fans were left disappointed by his set at London’s Victoria Park on Saturday (17 August) when they realised he was playing material exclusively from New Blue Sun.
One fan was taken aback by the performance, and claimed the musician was “chanting incoherently into the mic”, while another said he was “barking”.
“He brought his flute, fine. He then barks, fine. He then starts speaking in a language, fine. He then says that language is made up!!??!?!!” wrote one enraged fan on X/Twitter.
Another called it “one of the most self-indulgent” performances they had seen, saying the musician just “rocked up and started making noise”.
Others found it amusing that fans went to the festival expecting any of André 3000’s older hits, since it is well known that he is touring material from New Blue Sun.
“People need to chill on André 3000,” wrote one fan. “His latest album is a flute album and that’s what he is touring. It would be weird if he didn’t. It doesn’t sonically make sense to for him to perform other music during that set.”
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Another added: “The thought of people running to André 3000’s set expecting ‘Hey Ya’ then furiously turning around at the sight of flutes is pretty funny.”
One more wrote: “Looooooool I’m not even delighting in the misfortune of others but did anyone really expect André 3000 to do anything other than play the flute? He told you that’s what he’s on right now.”
Clash magazine’s Robin Murray, who was at the festival, concluded it was a “bold, uncompromising set, but it puzzled many in the crowd”.
Ahead of the album’s release in November, the musician said in a statement: “I don’t want to troll people. I don’t want people to think, Oh, this André 3000 album is coming! And you play it and like, ‘Oh man, no verses,’” he said. “So even actually on the packaging, you’ll see it says ‘Warning: No bars.’ It’s letting you know what it is off the top.”
He told fans the album would be “an entirely instrumental album centred around woodwinds; a celebratory piece of work in the form of a living, breathing, aural organism”.
He added: “I’ve been interested in winds for a long time, so it was just a natural progression for me to go into flutes. I just like messing with instruments and I gravitated mostly toward wind.”
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