Andre 3000’s All-Flute Album Landed an Album of the Year Grammy Nomination; He and Black Twitter Have a Lot to Say About It

Although fans initially responded with mixed feelings when they learned that André 3000’s late 2023 album “New Blue Sun” featured him playing the flute, this hasn’t stopped the record from receiving critical success.

Last week, the Atlanta rap legend’s 2023 record was nominated for several awards at the 2025 Grammys, most notably Album of the Year. He was also nominated for Best Alternative Jazz Album and Best Instrumental Composition.

When asked by the New York Times where he was when he heard the news that he was nominated for music’s biggest award, he said, “I’m in Virginia today, we’re playing tonight. I was just waking up and I heard that the nominations came in. We were trying to be nominated in some type of way for alternative jazz or ambient, possibly.

“But I was totally surprised by this,” he continued. “So yeah, it was super, super, super duper cool.”

But Dré wasn’t the only person shocked by his nomination. Many on social media couldn’t believe what they were seeing when they noticed that Dré’s flute album was nominated for Album of the Year with the likes of Beyoncé and others.

Some were happy with the nomination, saying that it signals that the Recording Academy is willing to nominate artists even if they are trying new things.

One person tweeted, “ANDRE 3000 STEP OUTSIDE OF HIS COMFORT ZONE FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 20-SOMETHING YEARS AND IT EARNED HIM AN AOTY GRAMMY NOMINATION. TAKE THIS AS A SIGN THAT IT’S NEVER TOO LATE ANDRE!!!! DROP THAT SOLO RAP ALBUM!!!”

Another person posted, “Andre 3000 getting an AOTY nom for that ambient flute album is so random but that’s the type of stuff I wanna see more of from these award shows.”

Here are some other positive reactions.

However, some thought the album wasn’t deserving and felt like the nomination distracted us from the snubs of more qualified acts.

As you can tell by the reactions, this album continues to be a divisive subject, especially for loyal hip-hop fans. When the album was announced in November 2023, many were disappointed to hear that the record would not feature any rapping and would only include André playing the flute.

At the time, during an interview with CBS Mornings, he said, “No bars, so if you’re disappointed, man, I don’t know what else I could do. I don’t like that people are upset a little bit about it… If I were waiting for a thing for 17 years, a certain thing that I’m looking for, and something else shows up, I would probably be upset too.”

So Dré understands the pain his fans are going through, but it hasn’t stopped him from taking the creative chances that he wants to. And with these Grammy nominations, those risks appear to be paying off.