Hi, everyone. Anthony Fantano here, Internet's busiest music nerd. Let's talk about a very odd piece of news that has risen as a result of a conversation and interview featuring the great André 3000, the mastermind behind one of the most talked about records of the past year. That would be New Blue Sun.

And if you've been living under a rock, the reason this record has been so talked about is because André being a legendary rap artist, one-half of the Atlanta duo Outkast, and having created multiple amazing, incredible, ground-breaking, classic, impactful records as a part of that duo. After years of studio album silence, he suddenly popped up out of nowhere to push and promote a new album, this New Blue Sun album. But this was no rap album as many fans expected and hoped it might be if André was to come out of the woodwork to drop a project. No, this was a completely instrumental record with lots of parallels to jazz music and new age music being led by André playing the flute.

Because this record was a surprising change of pace and because, hey, honestly, it was decent. It was at least an interesting listen. I mean, there's certainly a lot of jazz and instrumental music, generally, that I would prefer, but it certainly had me wondering what he might do next on this front, were he to drop another record like this. And another record like this is the issue because in this recent interview that I'm alluding to with journalist Toure, Andre apparently revealed that this New Blue Sun album, I guess, didn't count toward his record contract.

Yes, according to Andre 3000's record contract with Epic, this new album that got a really big major label industry push behind it does not count toward his record contract, which, again, when you look at the logistics of releasing and promoting this album, is just insane because between all the interviews and the press and the streaming platform features and all of the promotional muscle that was very clearly put behind this album. No way the label recouped on that even though it was a big cultural event, it's André 3000's first album in years and years and years.

Of course, a lot of people are going to talk about it. It's going to draw a lot of attention. But New Blue Sun, as good as it is, not taking away anything from the album, this is not the record that hits and does super well in the era of streaming. And despite this record being such a huge commercial shot in the dark, the label seemingly did everything they could to promote it anyway and get it out there, get it some accolades as well, because the album just got nominated for Album of the Year for the upcoming Grammy Awards.

So clearly, the label is working behind the album, and it's cool that they're working behind an album like this. There's reason to argue that had this album not been made by an André 3000, by maybe a smaller artist in comparison, not that it wouldn't be good or well received or whatever, but the label certainly wouldn't be putting this much push behind it. It's cool regardless that an album such as this is getting that push. What's not cool is that, again, apparently it doesn't count.

"It's very interesting, my label will not count this album against my contract."

And according to André in this interview, the reason as to why that is is because the record label has a clause in the contract saying that a very great amount, like 90% of the album, whatever album he puts out with the label has to be similar to his previous project, which I'm guessingeecause his last records released in this fashion were with Outkast, and that was through Arista, which is connected to Sony and Epic, that would require him to make a record that's mostly or 90% rap.

Now, in this interview, André, I guess, is being very understanding and saying that the reason this clause is in there is because it prevents the artist from just recording an hour of hand flaps and handing that in and saying, 'Yeah, okay, this is my album', which, okay, I get that, and I understand that, but labels always hold the right to refuse to release a record if it's garbage or if they feel like it's not going to work out.

I don't know if André has an agreement with Epic and Arista that regardless of what he records, it has to be released, and it has to be promoted, and it has to be pushed. If that is the case, he has the ultimate music industry cheat code, and he actually can just release hand clap albums until the end of time, and the label has to put it out against their will. So even if André is trying to, again, be understanding and explain the logic behind this clause, you could poke holes in it pretty quickly.

Because again, at the end of the day, labels shelve the projects artists make all the fucking time, push back the records that they work on so hard all the fucking time. There are tons and tons and tons of albums that due to record labels just like growing cold on the prospect of releasing them, just don't see the light of day. Or, again, just get pushed back again and again and again for months and months and months. So again, to me personally, this clause just doesn't really make sense and is actually predatory.

Because look, at the end of the day, the fact of the matter is, is that he made the record, you guys heard it, and for whatever reason that you did, whatever the logic was, you decided, 'Okay, we're going to invest in this. We're going to put it out. We're going to release it. We're going to put all this muscle behind it.' You guys put the resources into it to release it. Why doesn't it count? You put all the effort into it that you presumably would for any other album that would count. So if it's not counting, then why is it getting its counting type resources and its counting type muscle and its counting type focus? If it's not counting, why are we acting like it's counting?

Now, this puts André in a weird situation. I mean, he doesn't express any wishes to immediately be released from his record contract anytime soon. But you have to imagine on some level that he, as an artist, is wishing for either that freedom or the capacity to negotiate and renegotiate in some way, were he to finish his contract and get the ability to reengage with the label and really leverage his influence and his cultural impact and his staying power. And while I'm not getting the sense that André has a secret rap album in tow, just locked in the closet that is not seeing the light of day because he has issues with his label, I am starting to think that were such an album to exist or it eventually exist in the future, it's probably not to be made while it's under these conditions. If this wasn't actually an issue, I don't think it would be coming up. It does highlight a serious unfairness, frankly.

Now, as far as this previous record clause works, I'm not sure if he can release another instrumental album, and then that would count because the previous album he made, technically at this point, was an album of that style, or the clause is probably in reference to the last album that counted. So he may still be locked into this loop of, 'Yeah, you have to keep releasing rap records in order to finish the contract out.' But honestly, if this is truly the situation and André has nowhere to go and no way to finish out this contract as long as he keeps releasing instrumental albums, I guess if Epic is willing to put in the huge push behind every single one of them, regardless of how well they do or what the demand is for them, I don't know, I say just keep dropping them and recording them.

But yeah, bullshit contracts, bullshit clauses, bullshit agreements, and certainly eye-widening to see that the industry has no qualms with being so deeply unfair to an artist of freaking André's stature. But yeah, I'm going to leave it there. What do you guys think of this situation in the comments? I'm sure you'll let me know.

Anthony Fantano. André 3000. Forever.