Songfacts®:

• This is the opening track of New Blue Sun, André 3000's first album in 17 years. It is an entirely instrumental record of both minimalist and experimental flute music. No bars, beats, or vocals.
• Fans want to hear the former Outkast artist rap and he did try, but the album is all about woodwind and breathing. André acknowledges his failure to give the people what they want with the title of this song: "I Swear, I Really Wanted To Make A "Rap" Album But This Is Literally The Way The Wind Blew Me This Time."
  
  "I've worked with some of the newest, freshest, youngest, and old-school producers. I get beats all the time. I try to write all the time." he told GQ.
  
  André added that his age had left him lost for inspiration when it came to rap verses. "Even now people think, 'Oh, man, he's just sitting on raps, or he's just holding these raps hostage. I ain't got no raps like that,'" he said. "It actually feels…sometimes it feels inauthentic for me to rap because I don't have anything to talk about in that way. I'm 48 years old. And not to say that age is a thing that dictates what you rap about, but in a way it does. And things that happen in my life, like, what are you talking about? 'I got to go get a colonoscopy.' What are you rapping about? 'My eyesight is going bad.' You can find cool ways to say it, but."
• During the tracking week ending December 2, 2023, the song debuted at #90 on the Hot 100. The track clocks in at 12 minutes and 20 seconds, making it the longest-ever song to enter the charts. The record was previously held by Tool's "Fear Inoculum," which reached #93 in August 2019. That song has a running time of 10 minutes and 22 seconds.
• "I Swear, I Really Wanted to Make a "Rap" Album…" marks André 3000's seventh solo entry on the Hot 100 and his first in a lead role. It is his first song to reach the Billboard Hot 100 since his 2012 collaboration with B.O.B, "Play the Guitar."
  
  André also scored 19 Hot 100 hits as one-half of Outkast in 1994-2007, including three #1s: "Ms. Jackson,"
  "Hey Ya!" and "The Way You Move" featuring Sleepy Brown.
• André recorded New Blue Sun at a few different studios in Los Angeles in 2022. He co-produced the record with jazz musician Carlos Niño, and the recordings are more or less improvisations. André plays a variety of woodwind instruments, including contrabass flute, Mayan flutes, bamboo flutes and wind controller.
• Carlos Niño plays bells, chimes, cymbals, drums, gong, and percussion on this song. The other musicians are keyboardist Surya Botofasina and guitarist Nate Mercereau.
• André 3000 originally took up the saxophone but soon switched to the bass clarinet, which led to the flute. "There was something softer and smoother about the tone of woodwinds," he told The Guardian. "It just felt right to me."