André 3000 Clocks Record For Longest Song To Chart On Billboard Hot 100

André 3000’s opening track on his new album New Blue Sun, “I Swear, I Really Wanted To Make A ‘Rap’ Album But This Is Literally The Way The Wind Blew Me This Time,” has set a record for its length. The song set a record not for the length of its title but for its 12-minute, 20-second running time, which made it the longest track to appear on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart.

As reported by Billboard, “I Swear, I Really Wanted To Make A ‘Rap’ Album But This Is Literally The Way The Wind Blew Me This Time,” is almost exactly two minutes longer than the previous Hot 100 record holder, Tool’s 10-minute, 21-second “Fear Inoculum.” André 3000’s single entered the chart at #90, which is three spots higher than the #93 peak “Fear Inoculum” reached in August 2019.

The Outkast co-founder released his debut solo album, New Blue Sun, through Epic Records on November 17. The all-instrumental release – his first full-length in 17 years – was influenced by New Age, ambient and jazz musicians like Laraaji, Brian Eno, Alice Coltrane, Steve Reich and Pharoah Sanders, and is the result of André “3000” Benjamin’s 20-year interest in wind instruments.

“I’ve been interested in winds for a long time, so it was just a natural progression for me to go into flutes,” André 3000 stated. “I just like messing with instruments and I gravitated mostly toward wind. What people will call New Age-y or spiritual-ish, people consider it heavy. And I think, because I’m coming from rap and I knew a different audience, different eyes would be following me and looking at it. So I wanted to make sure that what I contribute to this world brings a certain lightness or humanness.”

New Blue Sun debuted atop Billboard’s New Age Albums chart. The album was co-produced by Benjamin and multi-instrumentalist Carlos Niño, who played bells, chimes, cymbals, drums, gongs, plants and percussion. Others contributing to the album were Nate Mercereau, Surya Botofasina, Deantoni Parks, Diego Gaeta, Matthewdavid, V.C.R, Diego Gaeta, Jesse Peterson and Mia Doi Todd. Benjamin played several wind instruments, including the Maya flute, a digital wind instrument, and others built of wood and bamboo.

Stream the record-setting “I Swear, I Really Wanted To Make A ‘Rap’ Album But This Is Literally The Way The Wind Blew Me This Time” from André 3000’s album New Blue Sun below: