André 3000’s debut solo album New Blue Sun debuts within the top 10 of multiple Billboard charts dated Dec. 2, paced by its No. 1 entrance on New Age Albums and its No. 5 bow on Top Alternative Albums.
In the Nov. 17-23 tracking period, New Blue Sun earned 24,000 equivalent album units, according to Luminate. Of that sum, 15,000 are via streaming equivalent units, while 9,000 are from album sales.
Although best known for his work in the hip-hop genre as half of OutKast with Big Boi, New Blue Sun is a vocal-less, nearly 90-minute experimental LP, incorporating jazz, new age, ambient music and more, with André 3000 largely contributing flute and other wind instruments.
Through its inclusion on Top Alternative Albums, New Blue Sun also bows at No. 8 on Top Rock & Alternative Albums, which incorporates releases from the rock and/or alternative genres. On the all-format Billboard 200, New Blue Sun starts at No. 34.
Concurrently, the album’s “I Swear, I Really Wanted to Make a ‘Rap’ Album But This Is Literally the Way the Wind Blew Me This Time,” bows at No. 7 on Hot Alternative Songs, No. 12 on Hot Rock & Alternative Songs and No. 90 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100. The song earned 5.8 million official U.S. streams Nov. 17-23. As previously reported, the 12-minute and 20-second song makes history as the longest hit by run time ever on the Hot 100.
It’s one of six songs from the set on the 25-position Hot Alternative Songs tally, with “The Slang Word P(*)ssy Rolls Off the Tongue With Far Better Ease Than the Proper Word Vagina. Do You Agree?” next up at No. 11 (3.4 million streams).
The Hot 100 debut of “I Swear” makes the song André 3000’s first solo entry on the survey as a lead artist, following six as a featured act, most recently via B.O.B’s “Play the Guitar,” which hit No. 98 in January 2012.
OutKast boasts three Hot 100 No. 1s: “Ms. Jackson” in 2001, “Hey Ya!” in 2003-04 and “The Way You Move” in 2004. The duo also topped the Billboard 200 with Speakerboxxx/The Love Below in 2003. That release stands as the pair’s last non-soundtrack album to date; the act released the soundtrack to Idlewild, which peaked at No. 6, in 2006.
