Andre 3000 Compares Himself To Lil B While Describing “New Blue Sun” As “Punk Jazz”

Andre 3000 compared his music to that of Lil B during an interview with the Recording Academy published on Wednesday. After mentioning Sun Ra and the Art Ensemble of Chicago, the legendary Outkast rapper explained how his latest foray into instrumental music is similar to Lil B, who he described as having a “punk way of rapping.”

“A long line of historical bands like Sun Ra, the Chicago Art Ensemble. Even rapper Lil B,” he told the outlet. “I was joking to myself: I was like, I’m almost the Lil B of this type of music. Lil B is, they call it based rap. My son actually turned me on to Lil B. Because a lot of what he’s doing is made up or improv or really reactionary. It’s not this studied, perfect thing. Because I came up in the ‘90s, we came up with Nas and Wu-Tang and some of the [people] considered the best rappers around. It was about clarity. It was more of a studied kind of thing.”

He continued: “A person like Lil B is not studied at all. But the way the kids respond to him, it’s because of that. It’s kind of like a punk way of rapping, and I like it. [And what I’m doing is] almost like punk jazz or punk spiritual jazz. It’s pure feeling.” Andre put out his debut solo album, New Blue Sun, last year, ending his 17-year hiatus from music. In doing so, he moved away from hip-hop and into ambient jazz.

Elsewhere in his discussion with the Recording Academy, Andre spoke about performing the flute live, the evolution of his artistic expression, and more. Be on the lookout for further updates on Andre 3000 and Lil B on HotNewHipHop.