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André 3000 was spotted playing the flute in an airport – and people are losing their minds
18 June 2019, 14:59
One half of hip-hop duo Outkast wandered around LAX airport for 40 minutes, playing an indigenous flute – and barely anyone noticed.
André 3000 has been spotted walking around Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), playing a flute.
The Atlanta rapper, who is best known for singing the hit song ‘Hey Ya!’ in hip-hop duo Outkast, was snapped in a post on Friday.
At first, radio producer Antonia Cereijido thought she was losing her mind.
She tweeted: “I saw a man walking around my terminal playing a flute for 40min and was losing my mind because I thought it was André 3000. And then it WAS André 3000!!!”
By the time Cereijido landed in New York on Saturday morning, CNN reports, her tweet had been liked more than 68,000 times, and it was the No. 1 trending topic on Twitter.
I saw a man walking around my terminal playing a flute for 40min and was losing my mind because I thought it was André 3000. And then it WAS André 3000!!! 😍😍😍😭😭 pic.twitter.com/tqQ4C8HBh1
— Antonia Cereijido (@antoniacere) June 14, 2019
After snapping a photo with him, Cereijido found out his instrument was a Mayan double flute, made by instrument maker Guillermo Martinez.
“For everyone saying it’s not a flute – I specifically asked him and he said it’s a double flute,” she said in another tweet.
“I just got off the phone with Guillermo Martinez the man who made Andre’s beautiful flute. It’s a Mayan double flute. He and his shop are doing incredible work by keeping the music if indigenous North American communities alive.”
In the same thread, she told a friend: “Of course I didn’t say anything good. Now I’m like... I should’ve talked about how good his verse on ‘Solo’ is. And how my mom once had a dream he taught our family to dance the ‘Hey Ya!’ dance and we had achieved the American Dream. W/E NO REGRETS.”
The next day, another fan posted a picture with the rapper on Instagram, with a closer shot of the instrument.
What is a Mayan double flute?
Mayan double flutes are a type of Native American flute with two resonant pipes, instead of one.
They were crafted and played by the Mayans, indigenous people of Mexico and Central America who still live in some areas of southern Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador.
André’s family, it turns out, has Native American roots. “I’m part African, part Native American,” he once said in an interview.
Keep playing, André – and come over to the UK for a recital soon yeah?
