The jazz pianist Matthew Shipp has described André 3000’s new improvisational piano EP as “full and utter crap”.
Earlier this week (Could 5), the previous OutKast man dropped the shock EP ‘7 Piano Sketches’, the follow-up to his 2023 avant-garde flute album ‘New Blue Solar’.
Launched within the aftermath of his look on the Met Gala, the place he walked round with an unlimited piano strapped to his again, he advised followers that this EP additionally featured “no bars”, describing it as a sequence of improvisations on piano principally recorded at a home in Texas.
“These piano items weren’t recorded with the intention of presenting them in any formal approach to the general public,” he continued. “They have been private, at dwelling recordings. I’d typically textual content them to my household and buddies.”
Shipp, a celebrated American jazz pianist and composer identified for his work with David S. Ware, William Parker and J, Spaceman, has had his say on the EP in a prolonged and savage takedown on Fb.
“So a good friend known as me up and talked about that Andre 3000 has a piano album out,” he wrote. “I used to be like what. I checked it out on youtube – my impression of it. I believe it’s full and utter crap – horrific, god-awful insipidly wretched nothing.”
“Oh my fucking god that is some atrocious shite – is he some kind of fucking asshole? Is he an entire and utter dilletante? I may go into element about why every minimize is stillborn – however why hassle – it doesn’t even deserve the eye of a critique it’s so dreadful. The man is just not a pianist – that’s the starting and the tip of it – what an unsightly piano sound.”
His publish goes on to criticise the storytelling capability of André’s enjoying, claiming that there are “so many horn gamers” that might “play so a lot better”.
“This sounds to me like pure fraud – what an absence of respect for the self-discipline by somebody who for my part is an entire asshole for doing this – it’s miserable that this rubbish will get any consideration as a result of he has a reputation and fame – there may be nothing refreshing in regards to the naivety of it – it’s simply downright dreadful and terrible – true fucking crap – insipidly wretched nothing.”
In asserting the EP, André added that the songs had been recorded nearly a decade earlier than ‘New Blue Solar’, initially titled as ‘The Finest Worst Rap Album In Historical past’. He went on to share a snippet of the unique liner notes, which learn: “It’s jokingly the worst rap album in historical past as a result of there aren’t any lyrics on it in any respect. It’s the most effective as a result of it’s the free-est emotionally and greatest I’ve felt personally. It’s the most effective as a result of it’s like a palette cleanser for me.”
André’s instrumental EP comes amidst feedback he made in 2023 claiming he had “aged” out of raps, telling GQ: “Typically it feels inauthentic for me to rap as a result of I don’t have something to speak about in that means. I’m 48 years outdated. And to not say that age is a factor that dictates what you rap about, however in a means it does.
“And issues that occur in my life, like, what are you speaking about? ‘I bought to go get a colonoscopy’. What are you rapping about? ‘My eyesight goes dangerous’. Yow will discover cool methods to say it, however….”
In different information, André has mentioned OutKast are “additional away” from new music than “we’ve ever been”.
