The Grammy nominations were revealed on Friday (Nov. 8), and one of the most interesting nods is André 3000’s flute album New Blue Sun for Album Of The Year, sitting amongst Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter, Chappell Roan’s The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess, Charli XCX’s Brat, Sabrina Carpenter’s Short N’ Sweet, Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard And Soft, Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department, and Jacob Collier’s Djesse Vol. 4. Now, the former Outkast member discussed the nomination in a new interview with the New York Times.

Regarding finding out about his nomination, André 3000 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. So yeah, it was super, super, super duper cool.”

The journalist also mentioned how Outkast’s Speakerboxxx/The Love Below is a little over two decades old, and it was the last rap album to win Album Of The Year. About that, André 3000 commented, “It just depends on what’s important to the voters, and rap may not be important for them. I must say that even though Speakerboxxx/The Love Below was the last rap album, it was half a rap album. So even in that, it’s saying, well, we enjoyed something more than rap.”

Along with Album Of The Year, New Blue Sun is nominated for Best Alternative Jazz Album and Best Instrumental Composition. These nominations are Carlos Niño’s first nods, and according to the article he met André 3000 at Erewhon.