In 2019, André 3000 appeared to be in the grips of an existential crisis. “In my own self, I’m trying to figure out where do I sit?” speaking to Rick Rubin, he continued, “I don’t even know what I am, and maybe I’m nothing. Maybe I’m not supposed to be anything.” These somber musings were striking coming from the genial and idiosyncratic rap legend. He discussed his social anxiety disorder and hypersensitivity diagnosis, and the stifling effect of his early career success. Since that time, André has reinvented himself.
No longer simply a catalyzing force in popular music, with his New Blue Sun era, he tapped into a new zeitgeist and broke through the creative blockages he discussed with Rubin six years ago. Still, it has been a long road from the final OutKast records to André’s solo debut.We can hear his burgeoning woodwind enthusiasm as far back as the free jazz sax solo on 2003’s “She Lives in My Lap“.
However, other than the sporadic social media sightings of André playing his Mayan double flute, and the occasional instrumental appearance on records such as “Look Ma No Hands” (2018) and the Everything Everywhere All at Once soundtrack (2022) there has been little to connect André 3000 as a rapper to his current incarnation as an instrumentalist and improvisational composer. That is, until the surprise release of 7 piano sketches.
When Rubin asked him if he had been making music lately, André responded, “My focus is not there. My confidence is not there. I tinker, I tinker a lot. Like I’ll just go to a piano and I’ll set my iPhone down and just record what I’m doing. Move my fingers around and whatever happens…” Now, with 7 piano sketches, we get our first glimpse of those formative experiments.
Recorded nearly a decade before New Blue Sun, these intimate tracks, captured with presumably the same iPhone he mentioned to Rubin, were never meant for public consumption. “These piano pieces weren’t recorded with the intention of presenting them in any formal way to the public. They were personal, at-home recordings.” The result is not just a collection of solo piano works; it is a snapshot of André’s musical thinking during a time of transition and uncertainty.
Before following the white rabbit down a Wonderland of woodwinds, André 3000 had already begun drifting from lyricism. “I like music that I can have my own thoughts to,” he told Rubin, expressing his long-time appreciation of Philip Glass and his newfound excitement for Steve Reich. 7 piano sketches is less of an artistic proposition, but it is still revelatory. The minimalist influence of composers like Glass and Reich is evident, but so is the cool jazz of McCoy Tyner and Thelonious Monk. While watching the learning process unfold is an essential aspect to both New Blue Sun and 7 piano sketches, the dominant influences and musical lexicons are distinct.
André is defiantly untrained. “I cannot name which notes, keys, or chords that I’m playing… I spread my fingers out on the keys and randomly, but with purpose, move them around until I find something that feels good or interesting. If it feels really good, I will try to repeat it.” Without the virtuosity and vision of his New Blue Sun bandmates, Carlos Niño, Nate Mercereau, Surya Botofasina, and Deantoni Parks, on 7 piano sketches, we find André in a space of unfiltered naïve art. The result may not appeal to everyone, but that is hardly his concern. As he told Rick Rubin, “I’m just trying to find out what makes me feel the best.”
The opening track, “bluffing in the snow”, begins as if quoting Philip Glass’ “Metamorphosis: Two” before shifting to a rich harmonic stasis that feels at once tentative and serene. The record’s first half appears to come straight from the iPhone voice memo. However, midway through the album, there is a shift. On “blueberry mansions”, the only composition recorded in a studio, André 3000 begins to veer towards the abstract. The piano notes seem to be treated as samples no longer tied to acoustic space. The remaining compositions on the album continue this deconstruction.
One of the more euphoric moments occurs halfway through “off rhythm laughter” when the sampled laugh track gradually fades into a sea of reverb, revealing what feels like a gentle Vince Guaraldi melody echoing through an Éliane Radigue tape loop. The concluding track, “i spend all day waiting for the night”, features a phased-out drum machine and seems to flicker with the fading embers of André’s interest in a pop sensibility.
In another gesture of reinvention, André released 7 piano sketches in conjunction with his first Met Gala appearance in 17 years. His outfit, a reinterpretation of the 7 piano sketches cover, was a collaboration between Burberry and his newly relaunched brand, Benji Bixby. By debuting the record in such a rarefied context, he gave it additional dimensionality, telling GQ, “It’s saying a lot for this little bitty piano album.”
A long way from the inertia of 2019, André 3000 continues to evolve. His extensive New Blue Sun tour didn’t attempt to recreate the album, but instead embraced the same improvisational approach that shaped the studio sessions, allowing him and his bandmates to explore new aesthetics and musical expressivity. Subsequent releases, such as the glitchy and jagged “Something Is Happening and I May Not Fully Understand But I’m Happy to Stand for the Understanding” (2024) and “This Is Where My Room Used to Be” (2025), push further into abstraction.
7 piano sketches, by contrast, harkens back to a formative moment. While more of a window into a long and winding process than a fully polished project, it remains an illuminating body of work that helps to paint a fuller picture of André 3000 as a singular artist in constant flux. Whether it is the minimalist repetition on 7 piano sketches, the serene soundscapes on New Blue Sun, or the industrial assemblage of his more recent work, André 3000 seems to be guided by the same question he posed to Rick Rubin years ago, “Where do I sit?” If his past three decades of musical innovation are any indication, he won’t be sitting in any one place for very long.
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