Last week, Andre 3000 surprised the rap world by dropping his debut solo album after nearly two decades without a new project. But as soon as the announcement dropped, he made it clear to fans that the album might not be what they were expecting. He promised that the album had "no bars" and delivered on that promise. New Blue Sun is a long ambient jazz album that predominately features Andre playing the flute.
Now, the official first-week sales numbers for the project are in. It pushed 24k units which was good enough for #34 on the Billboard 200. While the numbers aren't eye-popping by hip-hop standards, they're very impressive for such an experimental album. While the project has been met with plenty of praise from critics, fans have been much more skeptical. Many out there don't feel all that relieved that Andre finally released an album, because they were only hoping for a new rap project. New Blue Sun was the fourth highest-debuting album this week behind country legend Dolly Parton, K-pop group ENHYPHEN, and the new collaborative album between 2 Chainz and Lil Wayne.
Andre 3000 Debuts At Number 34
In the wake of his album announcement, Andre 3000 made numerous other revelations in an interview with GQ. He revealed that he's secretly been collaborating with other artists and contributing instrumentation to their album under a pseudonym. That caused fans to pour through their music libraries looking for tracks he might be included on.
Now that the sales numbers for the album are out, fans are reflecting on DJ Vlad's take on the project. He claimed that the streaming and sales numbers speak for themselves and that Andre should focus on giving the people what they want. Many fans who liked the album disagreed with his take online. What do you think of the first week sales for Andre 3000's new album? Were they more or less than what you were expecting? Let us know in the comment section below.
Read More: Andre 3000 "New Blue Sun" Review
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