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Music|After This Interview, André 3000 Performed in Our Newsroom
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/21/arts/music/andre-3000-popcast-interview-performance.html
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Two decades after André 3000, as one half of the rap duo Outkast, won the Grammy Award for album of the year for “Speakerboxxx/The Love Below,” he is again nominated in that category on quite different terms. At the show in February, he’s up as a solo artist, for “New Blue Sun,” an album of improvised music on which he plays a variety of wind instruments and speaks no words. It’s a sonic pivot, but maybe not a philosophical one for a musician who has rewritten his creative approach several times over a 30-year career.
This week, he sat down with Popcast, the New York Times music podcast, for a wide-ranging interview about his journey from platinum-selling rapper and pop star to experimental flutist, discussing what it’s like to improvise after a career of writing down raps, the perks of naïveté and a tour-saving call from Prince.
Following his interview, André 3000 and the band behind “New Blue Sun” — featuring Surya Botofasina, Nate Mercereau, Carlos Niño and Deantoni Parks — performed an improvised piece in The Times’ newsroom.
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The full interview and performance can be viewed here. Below are edited excerpts from the conversation.
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