Andre 3000 shines in his first guest appearance since 2017 with English singer-songwriter James Blake on the latter’s brand-new album, Assume Form, on the song “Where’s The Catch?” Blake previewed the song during a DJ set in 2018, but now that the album is out, fans can truly appreciate the intricate wordplay and feats of precision offered by the elusive Atlien rap pioneer. Despite noting that he hates “heady-ass verses,” Andre turns in a verse he readily admits is “a little heady” in a quick preface before launching into a verse that touches on knotty subjects like anxiety, harmony, and entropy. Check it out below.
“All my pessimistic keeps me in a cage,” he opens, before rambling his way through a complex, stream-of-consciousness flow that illustrates the mundane monotony of depression with deft use of repetition and symbolism, wondering, “Harmony, harmony, how many, how many days of amazin’ will it be before it phases?” The beat, produced by Blake and Dan Float, is a signature, dark, moody electronic beat which that twists and turns through sawtoothed synths and crinkling kalimba.
Andre tends to disappear for a while after releasing his sporadic verses, so prepare for a long musical drought from the erstwhile Outkast member. Given that he last surfaced in 2018 with an experimental, two-song set after only contributing a single verse to NERD’s 2017 album, No_One Ever Really Dies, if you want more Andre 3000 in 2019, your best bet will likely be to catch him in his upcoming sci-fi thriller, High Life in April.
James Blake’s Assume Form is out now via Polydor Records. Get it here.
