André 3000 has made Billboard chart history as the artist with the longest-ever song to crack the Hot 100.
The song in question is “I Swear, I Really Wanted to Make a ‘Rap’ Album but This Is Literally the Way the Wind Blew Me This Time,” the opening track off the OutKast rapper’s debut solo album New Blue Sun. Landing at the No. 90 spot on Billboard‘s latest chart, the instrumental song clocks in at a whopping 12 minutes and 20 seconds, compared to the average three minute, 15 second runtime of 2023’s Top 10 hits so far.
André claims the title from Tool, whose 10 minute and 21 second “Fear Inoculum” peaked at No. 93 back in August 2019. Before that, David Bowie’s “Blackstar” earned that record in 2016, peaking at No. 78 with a nine minute and 57 second runtime. If by some magical twist of fate, the winds blow “I Swear, I Really Wanted to Make a ‘Rap’ Album…” all the way up to No. 1, it would be the longest song to ever top the Hot 100 since “All Too Well (Taylor’s Version) (10 Minute Version),” which is actually 10 minutes and 13 seconds.
If you’ve got a moment, you can stream “I Swear, I Really Wanted to Make a ‘Rap’ Album but This Is Literally the Way the Wind Blew Me This Time” below.
André recorded the bar-free New Blue Sun with co-producer Carlos Niño. We like to think it’d impress Prince more so than OutKast’s 2014 reunion performance.
