André 3000 announced that his new album New Blue Sun wouldn’t be a rap album, but it sounds like Lupe Fiasco might be planning on turning it into one. Shortly after André announced the album, Lupe hit Twitter to declare his intentions. “Gonna rap all over that 3stacks album and put it in the time capsule for future generations,” he wrote, leaving fans unsure if he was joking or deadly serious.
Gonna rap all over that 3stacks album and put it in the time capsule for future generations… pic.twitter.com/O79ixezZzp
— CHECKIN’ Out Now! #APTMC (@LupeFiasco) November 14, 2023
Here’s the thing: This is one of those things Lupe absolutely would do. The hyper-intellectual Chicago rapper has previously employed any number of unusual concepts for albums and mixtapes, from rapping over mainstream hits on Enemy of the State: A Love Story to rapping ABOUT dinosaurs on a track titled, fittingly, “Dinosaurs” from his 2020 House EP with producer Kaelin Ellis.
He’s been every bit as unpredictable and inscrutable as André has been over the past decade or so (albeit much more productive), and if anyone could pull off making a rap album over a bunch of flute instrumentals, it’s probably Lupe — if not André himself (they also share a proclivity for extravagant song titles). In his announcement, André said, “I don’t want to troll people. I don’t want people to think, ‘Oh, this André 3000 album is coming!’ And you play it and like, ‘Oh man, no verses.’ So even actually on the packaging, you’ll see it says, ‘Warning: no bars.’”
As far as why he didn’t rap on New Blue Sun, the elusive musician told Zane Lowe, “I try to write all the time… I ain’t got no raps like that… Sometimes it feels inauthentic for me to rap because I don’t have anything to talk about in that way.”
Well, that may not be the case once Lupe’s done. Let’s hope he’s being sincere, if only because we need to know what that’ll sound like.
