this s*** expensive as hell but ima buy it cause

bro, he's literally been like this his whole career

This is gonna be nice for sampling. Track 1 already sounds dreamy

80 for three 180-gram records (prob in white sleeves but still) plus a poster and a bunch of postcards? id say its a good price for what youre getting

I’m not loving the sample rhetoric around this tbh, like I get it but I’m also not tryna see every IG beat maker doing a basic flip of this album

Yawn lol

It’s called be creative then

Andre ain’t listening to enough rap if he really thinks it has to be some “I got funky fresh style and all the ladies!” S***

Bro listen to people like Billy Woods and Ka writing straight up literature as raps

Earl and that whole scene isn’t rapping about “flashy” “cool” s*** it’s just regular life stuff

The implication is that rap lyrics have to be about “cool” s***

Which is dumb as hell bro. Yes you could write about your eyesight getting worse lol

I get it but also nahhh tbh I think it’s a close minded way of looking at rap. If he was inspired and wanted to, he could easily find a way forward. I think he uses the “rap is a young man’s game” thing as an excuse honestly

He just isnt motivated to rap

I obviously think he still can but if he isnt motivated then i dont see why he should force it

Lol Jayson is reevaluating Andre 3000’s position in the culture

Yeah absolutely I agree

But I’m just more talking about when he uses the age rhetoric about it. If you’re not inspired cool, say that, but I feel like the age talk he goes on about is off base and almost feels like an excuse

I feel like thats for him though, if he doesn’t want to rap at his age or feels insecure about it thats sad but he probably can’t fully control it. He has given props to other older rappers who have figured it out, he just hasn’t figured out what it looks like for him.

Damn I really wished one thing people took from the nas and hit boy runs is that this doesn't have to be true

"Called my counterparts, I told 'em they gotta try this s***."

gq feature is cool

I guess that’s fair but I don’t think he makes that part clear enough, that it’s a personal thing that just relates to him. He makes it as a more sweeping statement about rapping and it just seems so outdated to still be preaching that angle.

Funniest part of the NPR was when he called Tyler and Frank “the young guys” lol like man you were already done with rapping when you were Tyler’s age but now you see him as young

Y’all be thinking on this s*** way deeper than he probably does to be honest lol. The nigga just doesn’t feel like rapping. I don’t know how many different elegant ways he can tell y’all this lol. His reasoning is literally the title of the first track

Did this mid leak already?

Listening to the leak as we speak.

He’s the one giving these explanations though. Maybe if he just made his point as straight up as that, then we wouldn’t talk about it. But when he start with this “I can’t rap because rap is a young man’s game, I go to the doctor, that’s not hip hop!”, he’s making the conversation about more than just “I don’t feel like rapping”

In what way?

the mental gymnastics itt rn

never has immersed himself culturally, has always gone against the grain

has always seemed somewhat disconnected or what i would call in his own world

and that is what he was embraced and loved for, since ATLiens

Fair enough I guess I just always assumed that was understood since The Love Below that he'll make whatever album he feels like making. Not entirely sure what people thought changed.

Bro rap is art you don’t need an excuse to not be inspired tf lol

If you really feel cynical, looking back at some of Andre’s efforts to stand out from hip hop culture with his dressing and singing, as legendary and groundbreaking as they were, give off more than a hint of “I’m not a rapper, I’m not like those rappers” vibe that most people would cringe at today

after the years of full cultural separation this starts to creep up a little more in their work and even some of his lyrics, the fact that hes kind of just doing all the weird s*** because he’s insecure about being considered “a rapper” or part of the culture and is trying to distance himself from it

I think if anything Andre should just stop repeating himself, he already told people he doesn’t feel inspired to rap so he doesn’t have to keep trying to think of ways to make that clear because I think it just creates more discourse about him rapping which doesn’t seem like we’re gonna get much of