André 3000 to headline Atlanta Jazz Festival 2024 with “New Blue Sun” performance – WABE

This year’s Atlanta Jazz Festival features one of hip-hop’s biggest rappers as a headliner: André 3000.

The Atlanta native and icon took a step back from hip-hop duo OutKast nearly two decades ago. Since then, he has created a new path for himself by playing wind instruments.

In the early 1990s, high school students André Benjamin and Antwan Patton joined forces and formed OutKast. The two men, called André 3000 and Big Boi, changed the landscape of hip-hop and helped bring music to the city of Atlanta.

“Big Boi and I literally prayed every night, ‘Lord, really, really, we just want to be good rappers,’” André told GQ Magazine in a 2023 interview. “That was our prayer. It was called a rapper’s prayer.

The duo prayed and they were answered.

OutKast has reached a peak of success in the music industry, both in terms of artistry and mainstream popularity.

Last year, the group’s sixth album, “Speakerboxxx/TheLoveBelow,” was named the best-selling rap album of all time by the Recording Industry Association of America.

Since his OutKast years, André has appeared in various guest features, including Beyoncé’s “Party” in 2011 and Drake’s “The Real Her” in 2014.

But his appearances as a rapper have been thin on the ground.

“I can’t put anything else out in the world if I’m not excited about it, because how can I expect you to be excited about it? How can I expect you to think, “Oh, that’s crude?” “, he told GQ.

And since then, he has opened up in various interviews about his mental health and how it has contributed to a new version of himself.

“As far as anxiety and that sort of thing, yeah, I’ve been diagnosed with that,” André told NPR’s Rodney Carmichael in a 2023 interview. “I just use it as an instrument, just like he uses me. I wouldn’t be here without these illnesses and what they call them and all that kind of stuff.

Around 2018, it started to reappear.

Strangers on the streets of New York began catching Andre playing various flutes and posting their observations on social media. He also released some work with wind instruments on SoundCloud around the same time.

Then, last November, he began his new creative path through his first ambient jazz album, “New Blue Sun.”

According to Decatur-based music journalist Maurice Garland, it was natural for André to grow in other areas.

“I think he got to the point where he could have said, ‘Okay, I think I’ve pushed all the boundaries that I personally could, in this particular genre of music, let me come out completely out of that and creating in another space,” Garland said.

But Garland says not all of Andre’s fans are following his new project. “It’s a little too early to say whether a new audience is building,” he said.

Some fans, however, are ready to participate. Clarissa Brooks went to school in Atlanta and grew up listening to OutKast. She attended one of André’s recent concerts, where he performed his new music live.

“I definitely felt like, ‘Yeah, I didn’t have this as something I was looking forward to,’” Brooks said. “But now that he’s here, I can’t wait to listen to him and interact with him.”

More people will have the chance to hear André and decide for themselves at the Atlanta Jazz Festival.

Camille Russell Love, the festival director, said she thought Andre held a special place in the Atlanta community, so it made sense to book him.

“I thought, you know, my God, how wonderful it would be if we could make it perform in front of the Atlanta audience,” she said. “The festival is free, and that would mean everyone could see it, everyone could see it.”

André 3000 will present his latest project, “New Blue Sun,” live at Parc Piedmont on the last day of the festival, May 27.