Hey, everyone. Anthony Fantano here, the internet's busiest music nerd.

It's time to talk some beef in the world of jazz, believe it or not, which seems like 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 over the years that he has been making instrumental music and doodling and toodling on his sax. Or look at guys like Miles Davis, who obviously amazing musician, amazing conceptualizer, fantastic band leader, legend, game changer, but simultaneously, quite a bit of a hater in his time, too. And now we have some recent thoughts, really a screed on this new EP/project of 7 piano sketches, improvisations that have been released by the one and only André 3000.

Now, this has been to the disappointment of some fans, given that, yes, André is still not rapping. For anybody who's unfamiliar, André 3k, aka 3 Stacks, is personally responsible for some of the best hip hop records and rap verses of all time. Together with Big Boi as one-half of Outkast, 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 that honestly, very few musicians are on regardless of genre, which is why, for a long time a lot of fans have frankly decried the fact that there has been a complete and utter lack of solo material from André or comeback Outkast material. That is until recently when Andre decided to start releasing music again, but not as a rapper or a hip hop artist, but a jazz musician or free improv musician.

To mark the change, he released the record New Blue Sun in 2023, which received some understandably mixed reviews, not simply because it's not the music I think a lot of fans were expecting. But as far as instrumental music goes and new age music is concerned, 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, André might do next, including questions about whether or not he'll shift back to hip hop, whether or not his label will continue supporting him in more instrumental endeavors. And like his last album cycle, André has hit us with a new batch of tracks with pretty much no warning whatsoever, showing up at the most recent Met Gala with a literal piano strapped to his back.

Anyway, this was not just a weird, crazy, funny, silly outfit for André to show up in because coinciding with this outfit, we have this new 7 piano sketches EP he has put out onto stream platforms, where you have the visual of him with the piano on his back. And yeah, as advertised, this short little project here contains seven piano, sketches, which are recorded in pretty much what sounds like a demo quality, a few announcements here and there, and spoken bits guiding us from one section of the record to the next.

It's 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 dicking around on the piano with no real plans or intentions whatsoever, in the way that you would just as a musician, idly explore an instrument and just capture random ideas to maybe save for later and implement somewhere else.

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 André 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 posts on my subreddit saying that, 'Hey, I hope Anthony 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 pianist, Matthew Shipp, 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 who comes necessarily from the old school and is closed-minded to experimenting or other genres of music.

In fact, Shipp 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 André here in this screed I'm about to read, it at least comes from a place where he's been ingrained and involved in the left field of all sorts of genres out there. The guy is not just 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 insipidly wretched nothing . oh my fucking god this is some atrocious shite — is he some type of fucking asshole ? is he a complete and utter dilletante ? I could go into detail about why each cut is stillborn --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 the end of it — what an ugly piano sound – lets 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 of something that he has not internalized -and barely knows on the most superficial level and then he loses the thread--of course there is zero composition going on in the improvisations --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 at 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 — this sounds to me like pure fraud -— what a lack of respect for the discipline by someone who in my opinion is a complete asshole for doing this – it is depressing that this garbage will get any attention because he has a name and fame — there is nothing refreshing about the naivety of it --it is just downright dreadful and awful--true fucking crap --insipidly wretched nothing" - Matt Shipp

I mean, damn, Matt. Tell him how you really feel.

Before I respond, first thing I got to say is, from one hater to another, respect. It's been a minute since I've really hated on something that hard. I really got to shout out Matt here for unloading the clip, letting the bombs fly, pulling no punches.

On one level, I do get it, especially since, unfortunately, I do feel like jazz, at least in the mainstream, there is this tendency for certain artists to get an inordinate amount of attention behind a release like what Andre is doing here, simply because he is André 3000.

I mean, it does suck genuinely that there are really great, talented, amazing, mind-blowing 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 let pass by and just not give the time of day. Meanwhile, a bunch of piano sketches that it does genuinely sound like André just threw them together will get many more listens simply because it is André 3000.

As far as Shipp's rant goes, I will say that is the most valid part of his entire take. That is a genuinely annoying, unfair, and awful thing. But simultaneously, I feel like driving that anger purely toward André 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 normy casual music listeners who will never listen to a jazz song voluntarily in their life unless André 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's not even a problem he's exacerbating.

Furthermore, I will echo the sentiments that the quality of the improvs and playing on these tracks that André has released, I don't disagree. They're not very great. I mean, there were certainly a few cool progressions here and there, but they more or less just sounded derivative of much better instrumental piano recordings that I've heard.

And yeah, there's not really a whole lot of momentum or intention or flow going on here. Really just a bunch of meandering ideas thrown together, stopping starting, starting, just 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 not great.

But simultaneously, it pretty much comes as advertised On top of that, there have been numerous occasions in which Andre has made it clear, be it on New Blue Sun or even in the midst of this most recent cycle, he is not coming at any of these jazz-adjacent recordings with the skill level or musical knowledge of a Charles Mingus or a Thelonious Monk.

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 the most mind-blowing player, which is why I have a hard time swallowing this angle or this view that him making these records must be some crazy cash grab or he's got to be some fucking asshole for making these projects.

I mean, on some level, I actually think what André has been doing as of late with his music is 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 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 some of the highest levels in the music industry in terms of commercial success, but also maintaining your artistic integrity while shooting for that, while accomplishing that.

We're also talking about one of the best, easily top five rappers of all time. You're talking about a man here who clearly knows and understands the concept of how to get skilled and good at a thing. You practice it, you work at it, you focus on it, you just really put your nose to the grindstone and you do it. A man does not simply just wake up one day and you're as good a rapper as André 3000.

I'm sure on some level, André is capable of or maybe even has 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 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 André 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 effort of 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 releasing whatever the fuck they want at all times, every second of the day. The stuff that honestly is far less listenable than these seven piano sketches from André, frankly.

I get it. I do think it would be cool if he could put out an album of mind-blowing jazz performances or even another hip hop record that's incredible. Maybe one day he will do that. But 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 to come out with just a bunch of random jerk around, 'I'm going to do whatever the fuck 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. 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 doing seven random piano sketches? Okay, I guess.'

I will get to it eventually, but I'm just going to go listen to stuff I would prefer to peruse that I've been anticipating far much more like the new Pink Pantheress 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 shit fit over André 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 if André ends up making something more formal, more planned out, more worthy of critique, sure. 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.

Let me know yours down in the comments. I'm sure you will.

Anthony Fantano, André 3000, forever.