Leslie Jones Says What Every Outkast Fan Is Thinking Right Now

Saturday Night Live alum Leslie Jones had a lot to say on the topic of André 3000’s new instrumental album, New Blue Sun. The comedic actress, who’s now host of The Daily Show, went ballistic on Thursday’s (November 16) episode after learning the legendary Outkast MC wouldn’t be rapping on his debut solo project.

Co-host Jordan Klepper began the segment saying, “You know, this is a beautiful, fascinating experiment in—” Jones screamed, “No! No it’s not!” She continued, “I’ve got to say something. This man is one of the greatest rappers of all time. We have been waiting 17 years for this m########### to release a new album. And it’s all flute? I’m going to kill somebody. This is how you know white people are winning. Y’all done turned André 3000 into Jethro Tull!”

Klepper disagreed, calling it a “brave” move by André 3000. Jones fired back, “Yeah it’s brave. ‘Cause if you play that s### in the hood, you gon’ get your a## beat!”

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André 3000’s new flute album is driving a wedge between @Leslie Jones and Jordan Klepper #DailyShow #Andre3000 #flute

♬ original sound – The Daily Show

André 3000 described New Blue Sun as “an entirely instrumental album centered around woodwinds; a celebratory piece of work in the form of a living, breathing, aural organism.” He addressed the inevitable backlash with the title of the first song: “I Swear, I Really Wanted To Make A ‘Rap’ Album But This Is Literally The Way The Wind Blew Me This Time.”

Reactions to the project have been mixed. The musicians, fellow artists and Hip-Hop producers (including Pete Rock) have embraced the 87-minute woodwind project, but Outkast fans have been up in arms, bemoaning the fact they didn’t get to hear Three Stacks’ voice for even a split second.

“Now im a producer, and what i hear on this album is amazing,” Rock wrote on Instagram. “Some of y’all ears been lost but as a producer what i hear? Sounds INCREDIBLE!!! Sometimes embracing a different side of a person isn’t a bad thing. In this business when you been doing the same thing forever you can get tired of it and wanna go left, nothing wrong with that. We all need that support sometimes.

“We had jazz musicians put albums out like this, why not except when 3 stacks do it? I mean i hear amazing samples on this album. BEATS!!! I listen to his last raps on that kanye joint all the time. One of the souths greatest MC’s. But i copped this album and im listening to it and you know what? I like it do far. Congratulations on this new journey and i believe real musicians will like this.”

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Other people weren’t so sure. The jokes were plentiful on Twitter and many echoed Jones’s sentiments. But no matter how one feels about André 3000, there seems to be one thing we can collectively agree on—he’s doing him, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. As he explained to GQ, “I’ve worked with some of the newest, freshest, youngest, and old-school producers. I get beats all the time. I try to write all the time.” But rap is not what comes. “Even now people think, Oh, man, he’s just sitting on raps, or he’s just holding these raps hostage.

“I ain’t got no raps like that. It actually feels…sometimes it feels inauthentic for me to rap because I don’t have anything to talk about in that way. I’m 48 years old. And not to say that age is a thing that dictates what you rap about, but in a way it does. And things that happen in my life, like, what are you talking about? ‘I got to go get a colonoscopy.’ What are you rapping about? ‘My eyesight is going bad.’ You can find cool ways to say it, but…”