Music Downloads & Lyrics
Hey everyone, Anthony Fantano here, the
internet's busiest music nerd, and it's
time to talk some beef. In the world of
jazz, believe it or not, which uh seems
like kind of an unlikelihood given the
current landscape of the genre today,
but historically, jazz is a genre where
opinions are strong and emotions can run
high. Look, for example, at artists like
Kenny G, getting the hate and flack that
he has uh over the years that he has
been making instrumental music and, you
know, uh doodling and on his uh sacks or
uh look at guys like Miles Davis who
obviously amazing musician, amazing
conceptualizer, fantastic band leader,
legend, game changer, but simultaneously
uh quite a bit of a hater in his time
too. And now we have some recent
thoughts, really a screed on this new
EP/p project of piano sketches,
improvisations that have been released
by the one and only Andre 3000. Now,
this has sort of been to the
disappointment of some fans given that
yes, Andre is still not rapping. For
anybody who's unfamiliar, Andre 3K, aka
Three Stacks, is personally responsible
for some of the best hip-hop records and
rap verses of all time. Together with
Big Boy as one half of Outcast, they
pretty much changed the face of Atlanta
hip hop as we know it, are still highly
influential to this day. And Andre has
proven a level of artistry uh that
honestly very few musicians are on
regardless of genre. which is why for a
long time a lot of fans have uh frankly
decrieded the fact that there has been a
complete and utter lack of solo material
from Andre or comeback outcast material.
That is until recently when Andre
decided to uh start releasing music
again, but not as a rapper or a hip-hop
artist, but uh a jazz musician or free
improv musician. To mark that change, he
released the record New Blue Sun in
2023, which received some understandably
mixed reviews. Uh not simply because
it's uh not the sort of music I think a
lot of fans were expecting, but as far
as instrumental music goes and new age
music is concerned, uh it's all right.
It's fine. Certainly a lot of room and
potential for improvement. I'll say
that. Since the release of that album,
there has been a lot of discourse about
what musically Andre might do next,
including questions about uh whether or
not he'll shift back to hip-hop, whether
or not his label uh will continue
supporting him in more instrumental
endeavors. And like his last album,
Cycle, Andre has hit us with a new batch
of tracks with uh pretty much no warning
whatsoever, showing up at the most
recent Met Gala with a literal piano
strapped to his back. Anyway, uh this
was not just a kind of a weird, crazy,
funny, silly outfit for Andre to show up
in because uh coinciding with this
outfit, uh we have this new piano
sketches EP he has put out onto
streaming platforms where, you know, you
have the visual of of him with the piano
on his back. And yeah, as advertised,
uh, this short little project here, uh,
contains seven piano sketches which are
recorded in pretty much what sounds
like, you know, demo quality. A few
announcements here and there and spoken
bits kind of guiding us from one section
of the record to the next. It's kind of
funny. I've listened to the EP. I mean,
I think it's fine. It pretty much comes
as what is advertised. It sounds like
he's really just like kind of
around on the piano with no real plans
or intentions whatsoever. Sort of in the
way that you would just sort of as a
musician idally explore an instrument
and just capture random ideas to maybe
save for later and implement somewhere
else. Like that's really the flavor and
direction and makeup of the EP in a
nutshell. Not really a whole lot to
critique or report, but because it's
Andre 3000 and there's a lot of
listeners and fans who would rather he
be doing something else, of course, this
project is going to get an inordinate
amount of attention and strong opinions
thrown its way. There have not only been
uh posts on my subreddit saying that uh
hey, I hope Anthony like shits on this
project, it's garbage. And not only
that, but we have also been getting some
hot takes on this project from the world
of jazz. Enter in pianist Matthew Ship,
which I know there might be a fair
amount of people watching this channel
thinking like, who is this guy? Why
should I care? But he's actually a
really talented and accomplished jazz
musician and not one uh who, you know,
comes necessarily from the old school
and is uh close-minded to experimenting
or other genres of music. In fact, Ship
has made quite a bit of free improv
music himself and has also recorded and
performed with the likes of the Antipop
Consortium LP. The guy is certainly hip,
and when he critiques Andre here in this
screed I'm about to read, uh it at least
comes from a place where, you know, he's
he's uh been ingrained and been involved
in like the left field of all sorts of
genres out there. The guy's not just
like simply a hard bop purist or
something like that. So, a friend called
me up and mentioned that Andre 3000 has
a piano album out. I was like, "What?" I
checked it out on YouTube. My impression
of it, I think it is complete and utter
crap. Horrific, god awful, incipidly
wretched nothing. Oh my god.
This is some atrocious shite. Is he some
type of Is he a
complete and utter dilotant? I could go
into detail about why each cut is still
born, but why bother? It does not even
deserve the attention of a critique. It
is so dreadful. The guy is not a
pianist. That is the beginning and end
of it. What an ugly piano sound. Let's
not even talk about telling a story with
harmony. Sounds like he listens to a
bunch of music, gets a couple of
gestures in his head, sits down in a
stream of consciousness, and gets at
some gesture for a few bars or something
he has not internalized and barely knows
uh on the most superficial level. And
then he loses the thread. Of course,
there is zero composition going on in
the improvisations. uh no language to
speak of, just a few cliches in his head
that he can't actually play the cliche,
but he hits and tries it until he peters
out quickly. Wow, he is so horrible at
playing harmony. So many horn players
that piano is not their instrument. Play
so much better. Uh this sounds to me
like pure fraud. What a lack of respect
for the discipline by someone who, in my
opinion, is a complete for doing
this. It is depressing that this garbage
will get any attention because he has a
name and fame. There was nothing
refreshing about the naivee of it. Uh,
it is just downright dreadful and awful.
True crap. Incipidly wretched.
Nothing. I mean, damn Matt, tell them
how you really feel. You know, before I
respond, first thing I got to say is
like from one hater to another, respect.
It's been a minute since I've really
hated on something that hard. So, you
know, I really got to shout out Matt
here for uh unloading the clip, letting
the bombs fly, pulling no punches. On
one level, I I do get it, especially
since unfortunately I do feel like uh
jazz, at least in the mainstream, uh
there is this tendency for uh certain
artists to get an inordinate amount of
attention behind a release like what
Andre is doing here simply because he is
Andre 3000. I mean, it does kind of suck
genuinely that there are really great,
talented, amazing, mindblowing players
out there making really respectable and
quality records that get little to no
attention from the industry that a lot
of listeners will just kind of let pass
by and just not give the time a day.
Meanwhile, a bunch of piano sketches
that it does genuinely sound like Andre
just kind of like threw them together,
uh, will get many more listens simply
because it is Andre 3000. As far as
Ship's rant goes, I I will say that is
the most like valid part of his entire
take. That is a genuinely annoying,
unfair, and awful thing. But
simultaneously, I feel like uh driving
that anger purely toward Andre 3000 is
maybe not the way to go about addressing
this because it's not his fault that
that inequity exists. the fact that
there are normie casual music listeners
who uh will never listen to a jazz song
voluntarily in their life unless Andre
is doing it on a random project here.
That's not his problem to fix. That's
not a problem he created. I mean, with
the release of this thing, it it's not
even a problem he's exacerbating.
Furthermore, I will echo the sentiments
that like the quality of the improvs and
playing on these tracks that Andre has
released, I don't disagree. They're not
very great. I mean, there were certainly
a few kind of cool progressions here and
there, but they more or less just
sounded derivative of like much better
instrumental piano recordings that I've
heard. And yeah, there's not really a
whole lot of momentum or intention or
flow uh going on here. Really just a
bunch of meandering ideas thrown
together, stopping, starting, just kind
of doing whatever. I really have no
plans on formally reviewing this thing.
Not because I'm afraid of saying, "Oh,
it's terrible. It's bad. It's whatever."
I mean, yeah, I'll say it again here.
It's it's not great. But simultaneously,
it pretty much comes as advertised. On
top of that, there have been numerous
occasions in which Andre has like made
it clear, be it on New Blue Sun or even
in the midst of like this most recent
cycle, like he is not coming at any of
these jazz adjacent recordings with the
skill level or musical knowledge of a
Charles Mingus or a Theonius monk. Like
in this latest era of his career,
everything he has done has come as
advertised. Never not once has he tried
to sell or market himself as like the
most mindblowing player. Which is why I
have a hard time like swallowing this
angle or this view that uh him making
these records must be like some kind of
crazy cash grab or like he's got to be
some kind of for making
these projects. I mean, on some level, I
actually think what Andre has been doing
as of late with his music is sort of
commendable. Like, he is completely
going against the grain of what his fans
expect him to do. He's doing that
unapologetically and in my opinion,
honestly. On top of that, I do actually
think there's a lot of conceptual intent
going into some of the music he's been
putting out lately, even if there isn't
the highest level of musical intent.
What I mean by that is that it's clear
that he's completely trying to break
away, not only from the uh constraints
of making hip-hop music, but also the
constraints and expectations that come
with making music that is super
marketable and commercially viable. Keep
in mind, we're talking about a guy who
has done that historically, has achieved
that at like some of the highest levels
in the music industry in terms of like
commercial success, but also maintaining
your artistic integrity while shooting
for that, while accomplishing that.
Like, we're also talking about one of
the best like easily top five rappers of
all time. You're you're you're talking
about a man here who clearly knows and
understands the concept of like here's
how to get skilled and good at a thing.
You practice it. You work at it. You
focus on it. You just like really uh put
your nose to the grindstoneone and you
do it. A man does not simply just wake
up one day and you're as good a rapper
as Andre 3000. I'm sure on some level
Andre is capable of or maybe even has uh
sort of achieved a certain level of
skill playing piano or doing something
else. But as of right now, he's clearly
not that interested in putting out any
music where he is being held to the same
constraints of like, okay, I'm going to
make something that's super artsy and
impressive and is going to blow people
away because I'm just operating at a
skill level that nobody else is at. And
I'm not saying Andre is progressively
going to even get to that point. But I
feel like what he's been doing as of
late on some level has been some sort of
effort of uh veering away from those
expectations and breaking down those
expectations. And lastly, take a look at
the current landscape of musicians,
music releases, and the music industry,
too. Every Tom, Dick, and Harry on the
planet is like releasing whatever the
they want at all times, every
second of the day. stuff that honestly
is far less listenable than these seven
piano sketches from Andre, frankly.
Like, I get it. I do think it would be
cool if he could put out an album of
like
mindblowing jazz performances or, you
know, even another hip-hop record that's
incredible. Maybe one day he will do
that. But uh just because he has had
incredible success commercially in the
past, I don't think that should mean we
should deprive the guy of the freedom
like everyone else has uh to come out
with just a bunch of random jerk around.
I'm going to do whatever the I feel
like on my instrument of choice, record,
album, EP thing. Again, everybody else
is doing that. Everyone else has the
freedom to do that. And you know,
frankly, in the current age of music
consumption and streaming, there's
literally no pressure to even listen to
this thing. I mean, I certainly was in
no rush, too. I heard a few songs on
stream and then I finished off the rest
of it just in preparation for this video
because my initial reaction was, "Oh,
he's just kind of doing seven random
piano sketches." Um, okay. I guess I
will get to it eventually. But uh I'm
just going to go listen to stuff I would
prefer to peruse uh that I've been
anticipating far much more like the new
Pink Panther S album or the new Billy
Woods record
or even the new Sleep Token. Yeah, I
just went and listened to those projects
instead of having a fit over Andre
3000 just like
going on some keys. So yeah, overall
assessment here it's not that great, but
simultaneously it's also not that
serious. I think there's more urgent
matters going on in the world of music,
frankly. And, you know, if Andre ends up
making something more formal, more
planned out, uh, more worthy of
critique, sure, uh, it'll happen when it
happens. Until then, he can continue
diddling around as he pleases, I
suppose, because it's certainly not
hurting anybody for sure. Those are my
thoughts on that. Uh, let me know yours
down in the comments. I'm sure you will.
Over here next to my head, it's another
video you can check out. Hit that up or
the link to subscribe to the channel.
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