NEW YORK (AP) — No one was expecting it. Late last year, André 3000 released his debut solo album, “New Blue Sun,” 18 years after his legendary rap group Outkast's last studio album, “Idlewild.”
But “New Blue Sun” has “no bars,” he jokes. It's a divergence from rap because “there was nothing I was liking enough to rap about, or I didn't feel it sounded fresh. I'm not about to serve you un-fresh (expletive.)”
Instead, he offered up a six-track instrumental album of ambient alt-jazz — with special attention paid to the flute.
“The sound, that's how I got into it,” he says of the instrument. “The portability, too. You can't tote around a piano and play in Starbucks."
He's also invested in the flute's history — like learning about Mayan flutes made from clay, a design he had re-created in cedarwood. “There’s all kinds of fables and, you know, indigenous stories that go along with playing the flute — playing like the birds or playing your heart like the wind — it kind of met (me) where I was in life," he says.
“Flutes — wind instruments in general — are the closest thing you get to actually hearing a human,” he continues. “You're actually hearing the breath of a person.”
“New Blue Sun” is a stunning collection, one that has earned André 3000 three new Grammy Award nominations: album of the year, alternative jazz, and instrumental composition. Those arrive exactly 25 years after the 1999 Grammys, where Outkast received their first nomination — for “Rosa Parks,” from their third album, “Aquemini" — and 20 years after the group won album of the year for “Speakerboxxx/The Love Below.”
“It matters because we all want to be acknowledged or recognized,” André 3000 says of his new Grammy nominations. “It's a type of proof of connection, in some type of way ... especially with the Grammys, because it's voted on by a committee of musicians and people in the industry.”
He's a bit surprised by the attention, too, given the type of album he created. “We have no singles on the radio, not even singles that are hot in the street,” he says. “When you're sitting next to Beyoncé and Taylor Swift, these are highly, hugely popular music artists, I'm satisfied just because of that ... we won just to be a part of the whole conversation."
He theorizes that it may be because popular music listening habits are broadening. “A lot of artists are just trying different things. Even, you know, the album that Beyoncé is nominated for, it’s not her normal thing,” he says of her country-and-then-some record, “Cowboy Carter.” “We’re in this place where things are kind of shifting and moving."
For André 3000, “New Blue Sun” has allowed him to “feel like a whole new artist,” but it is also an extension of who he's always been. “Being on the road with Outkast and picking up a bass clarinet at a pawn shop in New York and just sitting on the back of the bus playing with it — these things have been around,” he says.
He's also always embraced “newness,” as he puts it, experimenting creatively “even if it sounds non-masterful.”
“Even producing for Outkast, I was just learning these instruments. If I ... put my hands down and play ‘Ms. Jackson,’ I'm not knowing what I'm playing. But I like it,” he says.
As for a new Outkast album, “I never say never,” he says. “But I can say that the older I get, I feel like that time has happened.”
The 67th Grammy Awards will be held Feb. 2, 2025, at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. The show will air on CBS and stream on Paramount+. For more coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/grammy-awards.
FILE - Andre Benjamin, also known as Andre 3000, arrives at the 30th Film Independent Spirit Awards in Santa Monica, Calif., on Feb. 21, 2015. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)
This cover image released by Epic Records shows "New Blue Sun" by Andre 3000. (Epic Records via AP)
PARIS (AP) — France’s highest court has upheld an appeal court decision which had found former President Nicolas Sarkozy guilty of corruption and influence peddling while he was the country's head of state.
Sarkozy, 69, faces a year in prison, but is expected to ask to be detained at home with an electronic bracelet — as is the case for any sentence of two years or less.
He was found guilty of corruption and influence peddling by both a Paris court in 2021 and an appeals court in 2023 for trying to bribe a magistrate in exchange for information about a legal case in which he was implicated.
“The convictions and sentences are therefore final,” a Court of Cassation statement on Wednesday said.
Sarkozy, who was France’s president from 2007 to 2012, retired from public life in 2017 though still plays an influential role in French conservative politics. He was among the guests who attended the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral earlier this month.
Sarkozy, in a statement posted on X, said “I will assume my responsibilities and face all the consequences.”
He added: “I have no intention of complaining. But I am not prepared to accept the profound injustice done to me.”
Sarkozy said he will seek to bring the case to the European Court of Human Rights, and hopes those proceedings will result in “France being condemned.”
He reiterated his “full innocence.”
“My determination is total in this case as in all others,” he concluded.
Sarkozy’s lawyer, Patrice Spinosi, said his client “will comply” with the ruling. This means the former president will have to wear an electronic bracelet, Spinosi said.
It is the first time in France’s modern history that a former president has been convicted and sentenced to a prison term for actions during his term.
Sarkozy’s predecessor, Jacques Chirac, was found guilty in 2011 of misuse of public money during his time as Paris mayor and was given a two-year suspended prison sentence.
Sarkozy has been involved in several other legal cases. He has denied any wrongdoing.
He faces another trial next month in Paris over accusations he took millions of dollars from then-Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi to illegally finance his successful 2007 campaign.
The corruption case that led to Wednesday's ruling focused on phone conversations that took place in February 2014.
At the time, investigative judges had launched an inquiry into the financing of Sarkozy’s 2007 presidential campaign. During the inquiry, they discovered that Sarkozy and his lawyer, Thierry Herzog, were communicating via secret mobile phones registered to the alias “Paul Bismuth.”
Wiretapped conversations on those phones led prosecutors to suspect Sarkozy and Herzog of promising magistrate Gilbert Azibert a job in Monaco in exchange for leaking information about another legal case involving Sarkozy. Azibert never got the post and legal proceedings against Sarkozy have been dropped in the case he was seeking information about.
Prosecutors had concluded, however, that the proposal still constitutes corruption under French law, even if the promise wasn’t fulfilled. Sarkozy vigorously denied any malicious intention in his offer to help Azibert.
Azibert and Herzog have also been found guilty in the case.
FILE - In this Monday Nov. 11, 2019 file photo, French former president Nicolas Sarkozy attends a ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. (Ludovic Marin/Pool via AP, file)
FILE - Thierry Herzog, lawyer of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, speaks to the media after the verdict was announcement at Paris' courthouse, Thursday, Sept. 30, 2021. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, File)
FILE - In this Tuesday May 1, 2012 file picture, French President and conservative candidate for his re-election in the 2012 French presidential elections, Nicolas Sarkozy reacts to supporters as he arrives on stage at Trocadero square. (AP Photo/Philippe Wojazer, Pool, File)
FILE - Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy leaves the Elysee Palace after a lunch with heads of states and officials, Monday, Sept. 30, 2019 in Paris. (AP Photo/Kamil Zihnioglu, File)
FILE - Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, right, and his lawyer Jacqueline Laffont, center, arrive at the courtroom, Monday, Nov. 23, 2020 in Paris. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, File)
FILE - Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy looks on as he attends a ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe, as part of the commemorations marking the105th anniversary of the Nov. 11, 1918 Armistice, ending World War I, Saturday, Nov. 11, 2023 in Paris. (Ludovic Marin/Pool via AP, File)
FILE - Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrives at the courtroom for his appeal trial of trying to bribe a magistrate in exchange for information about a legal case in which he was implicated Monday, Dec. 5, 2022 in Paris. (AP Photo/Francois Mori, File)
