André 3000 received constant critical acclaim when he was rapping.
However, there wasn’t much praise for his acting skills when he ditched rap to be in the movies years ago.
The same with his all-flute album New Blue Sun. Although some liked the Grammy nominated LP, many said they didn’t care for it.
Now, André’s new instrumental album, 7 piano sketches, is getting ripped by accomplished jazz pianist, Matthew Shipp.
“I think it is complete and utter crap -horrific-god awful insipidly wretched nothing,” wrote Shipp on Facebook. “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.”
He continued. “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.”
What’s your review of 7 piano sketches? You can read Shipp’s entire post above.