Erykah Badu

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ERYKAH BADU

Singer, songwriter, and producer Erykah Badu is a vital, maverick, and highly influential player in progressive R&B. The Dallas native's lithe phrasing in "On & On," her sensational debut single, prompted comparisons to jazz legend Billie Holiday, and though she declared herself an "analog girl in a digital word" and soon became synonymous with the neo-soul movement, Badu is also a child of hip-hop, as comfortable working with sample-based production techniques as she is with a live band. Starting with the chart-topping, Grammy-winning "On & On" and its parent album, the similarly successful Baduizm (1997), Badu has forged a singular path. She followed her lean and sultry debut with the funkier Soulquarians summit Mama's Gun (2000), the especially free-spirited Worldwide Underground (2003), and the head-trip sister releases New Amerykah Part One (4th World War) (2007) and New Amerykah Part Two (Return of the Ankh) (2010). The mixtape feel of the latter carried into Badu's next move with the off-the-cuff But You Caint Use My Phone (2015), her first official tape. After a series of featured appearances -- "3:AM" (2024), headlined by Rapsody, became her fifth Grammy-winner -- Badu teamed with the Alchemist for the joint album Abi & Alan (2025).

Born Erica Abi Wright in Dallas, Badu was singing and dancing at a young age, performing and studying at the Dallas Theater Center and the Black Academy of Arts and Letters. After she graduated from Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, where she was in a rap group with future jazz star and fellow Soulquarians member Roy Hargrove, she continued studying theater at Grambling State University, and also worked on music with cousin Robert "Free" Bradford. Under the name Erykah Free, Badu and Bradford collaborated on writing and recording material. A demo consisting of "On & On," "Apple Tree," and "My Life" impressed a concert promoter who lined up opening slots for touring rap acts back in Dallas. After Erykah Free opened for Mobb Deep and the Notorious B.I.G., another demo tape was passed from Mobb Deep manager Tami Cobb to Kedar Massenburg, who had just launched Kedar Management with D'Angelo and the Angie Stone-fronted Vertical Hold among the earliest artists on the roster. Massenburg signed Badu to a management deal and brokered a recording contract with Universal Records. 

Badu first appeared on the soundtrack of the 1996 comedy High School High, duetting with D'Angelo on an update of Ashford & Simpson's "Your Precious Love," popularized by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell. In December of '96, she made her proper debut with "On & On," which she co-wrote and co-produced. The song entered the Billboard charts the following month, eventually topping the R&B/hip-hop chart and peaking at number 12 on the Hot 100. Baduizm, the parent full-length, went to number one on the R&B/hip-hop album chart and narrowly missed the top of the Billboard 200 upon release in February. Additional R&B/hip-hop hits came with the subsequent singles "Next Lifetime," "Otherside of the Game," and "Apple Tree," mellow if stimulating songs that detailed complex relationships and related wisdom. Madukwu Chinwah, the Roots, Ike Lee III, and Bob Power (chosen by Badu for his work with A Tribe Called Quest) were among the heavier contributors as co-producers and players, and renowned jazz bassist Ron Carter played on the deep cut "Drama." The album was still riding high, only nine months old, when Badu issued Live that November. Recorded in New York, the set mixed Baduizm highlights with covers and interpolations of '70s and '80s classics by Rufus & Chaka Khan, Roy Ayers Ubiquity, Heatwave, the Mary Jane Girls, and Tom Browne -- all of which complemented the preceding album's references to Stevie Wonder, Kool & the Gang, and Atlantic Starr. Additionally, there was the new "Tyrone," a humorous narrative that became Badu's fifth hit single and took on a life of its own, covered and referenced by numerous artists and mined for films ranging from Friday to They Cloned Tyrone.

Baduizm was multi-platinum by the time Badu was up for four awards at the 40th Grammys ceremony in 1998. "On & On" was nominated for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance and Best Rhythm & Blues Song, and won the former. Baduizm took Best R&B Album, and Badu herself was a Best New Artist nominee. Nominations for Live and "Tyrone" followed at the next Grammys ceremony. Meanwhile, Badu became in demand as a featured collaborator. She appeared on Common's "All Night Long" and Busta Rhymes' "One" in 1998, and in 1999 sang Jill Scott's words on the Roots' "You Got Me," a Top 40 pop hit that won Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group at the 42nd Grammys. The runaway success of Baduizm and Live, combined with between-album collaborative pursuits and acting roles in the films Blues Brothers 2000 and The Cider House Rules, made the release of Badu's next album heavily anticipated. In November 2000, Universal Motown delivered Mama's Gun, on which Badu partnered with the majority of the freely collaborative group of players and producers known as the Soulquarians. In addition to Baduizm contributors Questlove and James Poyser, Badu linked with producer Jay Dee and bassist Pino Palladino, and former classmate Roy Hargrove played trumpet and arranged the horns. She also kept the multi-generational connection intact by involving Roy Ayers and Betty Wright. The LP's personal songwriting and more expansive palette were exemplified by "Green Eyes," a ten-minute suite that drew from the blues and soul-jazz as Badu sang of jealousy and longing. The lead single, the self-produced "Bag Lady," became Badu's first Top Ten pop hit, reaching number six on the Hot 100 while crowning the R&B/hip-hop chart. "Bag Lady" and the second single, the Jay Dee co-production "Didn't Cha Know," combined for three Grammy nominations.  

The celebratory "Love of My Life (An Ode to Hip-Hop)," recorded for the soundtrack of Brown Sugar, gave Badu her second Top Ten hit and a Grammy for Best R&B Song (along with two additional Grammy nominations). While the single and soundtrack version featured Common, Badu brought in a cast of women -- Angie Stone, Queen Latifah, and Bahamadia -- when she overhauled it for Worldwide Underground. Billed as an EP despite its 50-minute length (admittedly ten minutes shorter than Baduizm and 20 minutes shorter than its platinum follow-up), Worldwide Underground confounded listeners by coming across more like a weekend jam session than a polished product. In September 2003, it debuted on the Billboard 200 at number three -- eight spots higher than Mama's Gun -- and it received four Grammy nominations, including one for Best R&B Album. Badu continued to make select featured appearances over the next few years, and along with Jill Scott and Queen Latifah, she co-founded the touring Sugar Water Festival with the purpose of promoting awareness of health issues affecting Black women. The shows took place in the U.S. and Canada over the summers of 2005 and 2006.

As she developed material at home with a digital audio workstation and interfaced with an expanding network of vanguard collaborators -- Sa-Ra, Madlib, Karriem Riggins, Thundercat, and more -- Badu's sound opened up considerably for her next two albums. Previewed in late 2007 with the flirtatious "Honey," produced by 9th Wonder, New Amerykah Part One (4th World War) arrived the following February. The songs ranged from highly introspective ruminations on womanhood to grim examinations of anti-Black social structures and planetary ills. Badu paid tribute to Jay Dee, aka J Dilla, with "Telephone," a spectral ballad written with Questlove and James Poyser the day after the ceremony of the beloved producer's death. "Master Teacher," written and produced with Shafiq Husayn of Sa-Ra and Georgia Anne Muldrow, helped popularize "Stay woke," an African American Vernacular English phrase that dates back to the 1930s, if not earlier, and was used by Lead Belly in "The Scottsboro Boys," recorded in 1940. Badu returned with New Amerykah Part Two (Return of the Ankh) in March 2010. Made with much of the same crew that helped her with 4th World War, Return of the Ankh was comparatively lighter, more in the vein of "Honey" in terms of feel and sample flips, yet not without live instrumentation, as exemplified by "Window Seat," the album's biggest single. Both New Amerykah volumes were well-received, respectively entering the Billboard 200 in the second and fourth slots.

While she didn't release a project for another five years, Badu added to her number of featured spots throughout the first half of the 2010s, lending her voice to tracks such as Robert Glasper Experiment's "Afro Blue," Flying Lotus' "See Thru to U," Tyler, The Creator's "Treehome95," and Janelle Monáe's "Q.U.E.E.N." In 2015, her rewrite of Drake's "Hotline Bling," "Cel U Lar Device," led to the making of the mixtape But You Caint Use My Phone, titled after a line from "Tyrone." Produced entirely by Badu and Zach Witness, a fellow Dallas native who caught Badu's ear with his remix of "Bag Lady," the tape kept to a telecommunication theme with Todd Rundgren's "Hello It's Me," Usher's "U Don't Have to Call," and New Edition's "Mr. Telephone Man" (written by Ray Parker, Jr.) among the songs referenced, interpolated, or covered. Also that year, Badu was beside Chance the Rapper on "Rememory" by Donnie Trumpet (aka Nico Segal). She assisted Robert Glasper ("Maiysha [So Long]") and DRAM ("WiFi") before she and James Poyser covered Squeeze's "Tempted" for Stella Meghie's romantic drama The Photograph. After she contributed to Teyana Taylor's "Lowkey," she went farther afield in 2022 by linking with RM of K-pop group BTS (for "Yun") and permitting Jamie xx to use his recording of her animated handling of a technical malfunction during a performance at the Primavera Sound festival (as heard on "F.U."). In 2024, Badu was featured on Rapsody's "3:AM," which won Best Melodic Rap Performance at the 67th Annual Grammy Awards. "Next to You," the first fruit of Badu's full-length collaboration with veteran producer the Alchemist, followed in June 2025. ~ Andy Kellman, Rovi

Erykah Badu

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