André 3000 appeared on The Tonight Show to perform his recent song, “BuyPoloDisorder’s Daughter Wears a 3000® Shirt Embroidered,” and to chat with host Jimmy Fallon.
The musician was joined by his band for the entirely-instrumental live performance, which took on an experimental tone aided by the backdrop of a glowing blue sun. André 3000 played his parts on his custom double flute, which is the highlight of his Grammy-nominated debut solo LP, New Blue Sun. Notably, the musicians pared the song down for its late-night debut, shortening it from 13 minutes to five.
Ahead of the performance, André 3000 sat down with Fallon to discuss his album, electing not to rap on any of the tracks, and the innovative song titles. He also, of course, discussed playing the flute, which has both delighted and confused fans over the past year.
“I’ve been playing the particular flute that got me down this path for about seven years,” the musician told Fallon. “But I’ve always been into wind instruments, even during Outkast times.”
He also discussed the fan obsession with finding him playing his flute and posting it on the Internet. “You know how when you have your phone and you’re usually just scrolling and looking—I’ll play flute,” André 3000 explained. “So it’ll just be something I’ll do if I’m waiting on my coffee to get made or something like that… And it was crazy because I was spending a lot of time in Philly, working on a film, and so I would walk around Philly playing a lot. People would stop me in the street and they’d like, ‘You know it’s a game now.’”
He realized people were searching for him around the city, but wasn’t deterred from playing in public. “No one knew what was going on,” Fallon replied. “They’re like, ‘I didn’t even know that you played the flute.’” André 3000, clearly perplexed, confirmed, “Yeah, I don’t know.”
New Blue Sun dropped last year, marking André 3000’s first solo album. The musician recently sat down with Rolling Stone and said he gotten primarily positive reactions when he shared his new musical direction with his peers.
“I didn’t tell them I was doing a flute album,” he said. “I just sat down and said, ‘Hey, check out this new stuff that I’m doing.’ And the feedback I got was positive. And not just friends, either. I sat down with colleagues, even younger people, to get their opinion of it. It was interesting to hear opinions from all kind of places, and to physically see people calm down or fall asleep.”
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