Soul/Hip-Hop Thought of the Day #2

"No you won't naming no buildings after me to go down dilapidated."
Erykah Badu, "A.D. 2000"

Erykah Badu's "Gone Baby, Don't Be Long"

You already know


Erykah Badu - Gone Baby, Don't be Long from beeple on Vimeo.

9th Wonder & David Banner "Silly" feat. Erykah Badu

9th Wonder is all bifocals and blazers in the halls of academia, but give him a chance to rock over his own spacey beat and watch the big time producer's Southern twang burst out of the seams. Erykah Badu's four-word hook keeps the cipher rolling while David Banner takes crunk to the nth power with abrasive rapping that suggests that his inner pop star might need one baseball bat to the head before he's completely dead.

9th Wonder & David Banner's album, Death of a Pop Star, is in stores now.

David Banner & 9th Wonder - Silly (feat. Erykah Badu) by EssuavemeediaOnWordpress

What say you: HIT OR MISS?

Erykah Badu "Soldier (Sam Champ Remix)"

How do you remix someone who always remixes herself? Sam Champ found a way with this mellifluous re-stirring of Erykah Badu's New Amerykah Part One: 4th World War hit "Soldier". This jam, with its trippy keyboards, floats on a canopy of other-worldliness like no other. Look out for Sam Champ's remix EP to drop in December.

Soldier (Sam Champ Remix) by samchampion

Photography by: Vickey Ford of The Couch Sessions

REVIEW: Bilal's Airtight's Revenge

So you wanted to know who the Nate Dogg of neo-soul was? The guy who’s done more significant guest work than solo work? Bilal is that dude. The difference: One can sniff out Nate Dogg’s stamp from a mile away, but Bilal’s cameos (Common’s “It’s Your World/Pop’s Reprise”, Erykah Badu’s “Soldier”) are apparitional at best.

That speaks to Bilal’s voice as an aesthetic. On his third album, Airtight’s Revenge, Bilal’s silky notes float in between guitar riffs and piano arpeggios in a way that makes you want to scream somebody’s been listening to Prince! Yet, it’s an atmosphere that only Bilal can create, and for a sec, we see why artists who want Bilal on the hook, want only Bilal and no one else.

This effort is the result of an underappreciated singer who is given the opportunity to carry his own project. Bilal’s first album 1^st Born Second dipped under the radar after an ephemeral appearance on the Billboard 200, and the bootleggers got to his second album, Love for Sale, before the record shelves did. So, what makes the album's first single “All Matter” doubly refreshing is not just the fervor of Bilal’s voice, but more importantly the singularity of it.

Bilal comes off strongest on the emotional cuts. Whether it’s words of advice to his seeds (“Little One”) or letters of breakup to past lovers (“Think It Over”), the soul singer’s heart is that invisible instrument that often deserves the most liner note recognition. Bilal even gets wayward on “She’s Flying” when he sings, “How do you that?/ Upside down when you’re smoking crack…somebody get this ho up off the flo’.” Add the residue of an indie label like Plug Research and you get folky electronic soul that palpitates.

Airtight’s Revenge may very well be the definition of creative control. It’s full of quirks and sounds that would have been deleted by mainstream censors. Quirks and sounds that make the album the truest Bilal release to date.

Bilal on "Airtight's Revenge" from Centric TV on Vimeo.

Airtight's Revenge available tomorrow

For exclusive video of Bilal talking "Airtight" track by track, Log on to our sister blog site: centrictv.com/subcentric.

MINI REVIEW: Rick Ross's Teflon Don

Like my rommate Noah said, success is the best way to win a rap battle. Worldstarhiphop.com had eyes glued to a certain clip of 50 Cent treating Rick Ross's baby mama to a lavish shopping spree, the ultimate denigration of the Miami rapper's manhood. But guess what? Rick Ross is releasing ish like his fourth studio album Teflon Don while 50 is putting out garbage with an accent on the second "a". On this album, Ross holds his own with the heavyweights, one of whom, by the name of Shawn Charter disavows his connections to the devil in "Free Mason". Teflon Don sounds like a groovy score to a kick ass blaxploitation film, which would make Ross's duet with Ne-Yo "Super High" outta sight.
Hardcore crunkists will be surprised to find Erykah Badu on the extra chill "Maybach Music III", but hey, it's that type of album. For this top to bottom doozy, Rick Ross may find it best to borrow Kanye West's lyrics from "Live Fast, Die Young" : "You can sneeze because I just blessed with my presence".

Peter Hadar's "Full Time Lover"

It pays to know young people. My girlfriend's nephew put me on to this site www.creativecontrol.tv which features these artsy, avante garde videos. It's got folks like Badu, Damon Dash, Currensy featured on the site. This video from Peter Hadar got my billiards bouncing...

Peter Hadar- Full Time Lover from Peter Hadar on Vimeo.

Erykah Badu New Amerykah Part Two Music Bio

As we know Erykah Badu's New Amerykah Part Two came out a little while ago. Here's the official music bio I penned for the album courtesy of Universal/Motown records...

ERYKAH BADU

NEW AMERYKAH PART TWO: RETURN OF THE ANKH

In ancient Egypt, the hieroglyphic character of the ankh at the fingertips of a goddess symbolized eternal life. If Erykah Badu’s “cipher keeps moving like a rolling stone,” as she so coquettishly proclaims in the legendary single “On & On” from her dazzling 1997 debut, Baduizm, her latest opus, NEW AMERYKAH PART TWO: RETURN OF THE ANKH, the follow-up to 2008’s critically acclaimed New Amerykah Part One: 4th World War, represents the point in Erykah’s career where she has traveled that cipher’s full 360 degrees and been revitalized. The new album, a warm recital of personal philosophies on love and heartbreak, marries the understated wit of the old Erykah to the sonically venturesome new Erykah. On NEW AMERYKAH PART TWO, structured ballads and airy jam sessions coexist peacefully in the same soulful arena.

Besides the album’s posh synapses and poetic out-of-the-boxness, Badu put her executive producer title to good use, enlisting many of the same producers that made New Amerykah Part One such a rich audio feast. This time around, the cast of usual suspects—9th Wonder, Madlib, James Poyser, Sa-Ra’s Shafiq Husayn, Ahmir “?uestlove” Thompson, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Jah Born, R.C. Williams, Ta’Raach, Karriem Riggins, and the spectral J Dilla—are not so easily identifiable, outdoing themselves with arrangements that step out of their signature realms of production. Take, for instance, NEW AMERYKAH PART TWO’s intro track “20 Feet Tall,” which finds Badu’s astral “I Can” theme matched with a sparse and uncharacteristic 9th Wonder production interpolated by James Poyser on keys. “Erykah is fantastic at speaking on a woman’s point a view on things,” says 9th Wonder. “She can create that connection between genders, even without the help of the producer.”

If unpredictability doesn’t explain NEW AMERYKAH PART TWO’s cohesiveness, then compatibility certainly does. Nothing else could account for the pure harmony on the album’s lead single, “Window Seat,” which features Badu’s seasoned vocals over a hypnotic thump and graceful keyboard riff. The mellow groove was co-produced by composer James Poyser with an assist from ?uestlove from The Roots on drums, representing a cache of genius that has been fermenting since Baduizm’s “Otherside of the Game.” Badu’s voice, frank and comfortable, sounds like it’s been privy to the same miles of history tread by R&B greats of yesteryear as she sings, “Can I get a window seat? / Don’t want nobody next to me / I just wanna take it out of town / A look around / And a safe touch down...”

Badu’s maturity, however, does not come at the expense of her wicked sense of humor—or her penchant for throwing sly hip-hop references into the mix on songs like the sprightly “Turn Me Away (Get MuNNY),” in which Badu waxes poetic about the power of the almighty dollar while paying homage to the classic Junior M.A.F.I.A. hit “Get Money” as well as Sylvia Striplin’s “You Can’t Turn Me Away,” which is referenced in both songs.

The Notorious B.I.G.’s influence can also be heard on “Fall In Love.” Produced by Karriem Riggins and featuring a recognizable piano loop from Eddie Kendrick’s 1977 classic “Intimate Friends” that listeners will likely recall from Alicia Keys’ 2005 hit “Unbreakable,” Badu finds herself lyrically inspired by a track called “Warning” from the late Brooklyn rapper’s phenomenal debut, 1994’s Ready to Die, as she playfully cautions, “You don’t want to fall in love with me / There’s gonna be some slow singing and flower bringing / If my burglar alarm starts ringing.”

But while the hustler’s anthem “Gone Baby, Don’t Be Long,” which harkens back to Baduizm’s “Otherside of the Game,” is another standout track, the true centerpiece of NEW AMERYKAH PART TWO is “Out My Mind Just In Time,” a three-movement ballad reminiscent of “Green Eyes” from 2000’s Mama’s Gun. In it, Badu bashfully admits, “I am a recovering undercover over-lover / Recovering from a love I can’t get over / And now my common law lover thinks he wants another.” The song’s second and third movements, produced by singer-musician Georgia Anne Muldrow, provide a funky perversion of the melancholy track.

“Out My Mind Just In Time” is also the title of the cover art for NEW AMERYKAH PART TWO, which is a collaboration between Erykah Badu and famed artist and poster designer EMEK, who also designed the inspired packaging for New Amerykah Part One. The new album cover depicts an underwater image of Badu wearing a suit of armor that symbolizes the tough exterior she developed to protect herself from the harsh realities of life. The armor is her old shell and now she’s liberating herself from it by climbing out of her own head so that she can be reborn. Her tuning fork is summoning the vibrations of the universe and the purple-colored tree of life and purple sky represent the 7th Chakra—the Crown Chakra right above her third eye shield, which represents peace, wisdom, and spirituality. The numerical theme of three is symbolized by three moons, three hidden babies, three trees, and three ankhs. Closer inspection reveals that Badu’s shoulders are surrounded by many of the same objects that filled her abstract afro on the cover of New Amerykah Part One, including handcuffs, a foreclosed home, fast food, cigarettes, broken chains, and a military tank. Here, those items represent refuse and rubble from which new life grows into a vibrant garden of colorful flowers blossoming all around her.

In keeping with the concept of the cover art, NEW AMERYKAH PART TWO taps into Badu’s emotional side by thematically focusing on romance and relationships. “With Part One, I was standing at an apex, looking at what was going on around me politically, socially, and economically,” Badu explains. “With PART TWO, I’m hovering over me, looking at what’s going on inside of me.”

Indeed, Erykah Badu’s soul is a beautiful, elusive thing. It popped up from the water with three dollars and six dimes. It popped up in the Bag Lady who was gonna miss her bus because she was carrying too much stuff. Some of it told her ole man to call Tyrone to help him come get his shit. A lot of it cried warm salty tears for her green eyes when she discovered love could indeed hurt like this. Throughout her career, Badu has both controllably and uncontrollably given herself to her music. With NEW AMERYKAH PART TWO: RETURN OF THE ANKH, Badu defers to the fickle stew of emotions, laments, aspirations, and rants that strong spirits are made of, the same stew of naked passion that has made her entire body of work such a visceral success.

 

Erykah Badu New Amerykah Part Two Career Bio

and here's the career bio I did...

Erykah Badu

There is perhaps one story that explains Erykah Badu’s cyclical outlook on her new album, New Amerykah Part Two: Return Of The Ankh, and it involves a visit to a Santeria priest in Cuba in 1999. Dressed for the occasion, Badu wore an all-white dress and, despite the humid weather, her signature towering head wrap. As she sat on the dusty sidewalk waiting to enter the house of Ifa, a young man who could best be described as curious looking barreled down next to her, popped open a can of beer, lit a cigarette, and began making small talk to another guy who Badu assumed was also waiting for a reading. Soon after, the house door opened and a charming old lady welcomed her; the young man, dressed in white cut-off denim shorts and a faded American sportswear jersey, followed them into the house. Uncertain of his reason for being there, Badu became reserved and uncomfortable with the idea of someone else sitting in on her reading.

And then it dawned on her: This young man was the priest. He came from a long line of respected priests. He didn’t have to wear fancy garments, or signal his faith with outward expressions. He just was. From that moment on, Badu’s head wrap came off—both figuratively and literally.

When Badu says “return of the ankh,” she doesn’t mean she’s returning to wearing the head wrap or any other accessory that evokes 1997’s Baduizm epoch. She means much more. The return of the ankh is the return of a feeling, what makes her creative, what makes her passionate, what makes her Badu.

Born Erica Wright on February 26, 1971 in Dallas, Texas, Erykah Badu inherited a taste for music from her mother Kolleen Wright, who introduced her to multiple genres of music (Joni Mitchell, Parliament-Funkadelic, Pink Floyd, Phoebe Snow, Chaka Khan). At the tender age of four, Badu began singing and dancing in productions at the local Dallas Theatre Centre. It wasn’t until her acting debut in the Martin Luther King Jr. Recreational Center’s musical production of “Really Rosie,” directed by her godmother Gwen Hargrove, that Badu realized she was a natural performer. “I played Alligator,” Badu says, “and at 6 years old, I got my first standing ovation. I knew I wanted to bring people to their feet from that point on.”

Badu stayed true to her artistic leanings and enrolled at Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing Arts in the late ’80s. Tomboyish and a bit of a class clown, Badu devoted most of her time to perfecting her dance form, studying the techniques of Martha Graham and Katherine Dunham, as well as practicing ballet, tap, and modern dance. Badu also sharpened her Hip-Hop skills, freestyling on the Dallas radio station 90.9 FM KNON under the name Apples the Alchemist until she eventually changed the spelling of her name from “Erica Wright” to “Erykah Badu,” “kah” being Kemetic (Egyptian) for a human’s vital energy or “inner-self” and “ba-du” after her favorite jazz scat-sound. But later, Badu would discover that her chosen name holds a far deeper meaning.

Badu enrolled at Grambling State University, where she majored in theater and minored in Quantum Physics. She left in 1993 to pursue music full-time. During the day, she taught drama and dance at the South Dallas Cultural Center and worked as a coffeehouse waitress. At night, she recorded and performed songs like “Appletree,” produced by her cousin Robert “Free” Bradford. In 1994, her 19-song demo caught the attention of aspiring record executive Kedar Massenburg by way of the SXSW music festival. Massenburg signed her to his upstart label Kedar Entertainment. The company eventually merged with Motown/Universal and Badu started opening for D’Angelo, prepping the world for the massive Neo soul movement to come.

The New York Times described Badu’s groundbreaking debut, 1997’s Baduizm, as “traditional soul vocals, staccato hip-hop rhythms and laid-back jazzy grooves.” Yet, hindsight reveals that Badu’s debut was more than just an album, it was the introduction of a new lifestyle. The music evoked speakeasies, incense, head wraps, and boho coffee shop culture all in one easy breath. Propelled by the lead single “On & On,” the album went multi-platinum, winning her two Grammys for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance and Best R&B Album. Badu topped Rolling Stone’s Reader’s poll for Best R&B Artist, and Entertainment Weekly named her Best New Female Singer of 1997.

The year yielded more blessings as Badu gave birth to her first child, Seven Sirius, whose father is the legendary Andre Benjamin of OutKast on the same day that her second LP, 1997’s Live, was released in the U.S. Live rode the wave of Baduizm’s success, going double-platinum. On the album, Badu showed that she could not be categorized, as the improvised “Tyrone” became a megahit, peaking at No. 1 for six weeks straight.

In addition to reinforcing her reputation as a dynamic live performer, Badu’s big screen debut as Rose Rose in the 1999 film The Cider House Rules added another credit to her brown bag of artistic miscellany. And in 2000, she opened her trophy cabinet once again to welcome a Grammy award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group for her appearance on “You Got Me” by The Roots.

These checkpoints only heightened anticipation for Badu’s second studio album, 2000’s Mama’s Gun. A rich assembly of soul, funk, and organic Hip-Hop textures, Mama’s Gun achieved platinum status and topped the R&B charts for seven weeks bolstered by the album’s lead single “Bag Lady.” The song’s video paid homage to Ntozake Shange’s award-winning play, “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Enuf,” with Badu presenting a “choreopoem” performed by herself and four other dancers. The album also marked the beginning of her collaborations with the late J Dilla, who produced “Didn’t Cha Know” and “Kiss Me On My Neck (Hesi),” and to whom Badu pays tribute on a track called “Telephone” from 2008’s New Amerykah Part One: 4th World War. Capped off with the emotional hit “Green Eyes,” Mama’s Gun packed a graceful combination of potent lyrics and stirring melisma, surpassing Baduizm’s first week numbers with more than 190,000 copies sold.

In the three years between Mama’s Gun and Badu’s next release, 2003’s Worldwide Underground, the singer-songwriter went on her affectionately dubbed “The Frustrated Artist” tour to inspire new material for the album. On the CD—which was recorded in Badu’s mobile recording studio on her tour bus and features guest appearances by Lenny Kravitz, Caron Wheeler, and Zap Mama—Badu would also debut her new production team, FREAQuency (Badu, James Poyser, Rashad “Ringo-Tumbling Dice” Smith, and R.C. Williams). By September 2003, Worldwide Underground, an experimental, atmospheric jam session, was ready for release. In keeping with her track record for collaborating with Hip-Hop’s finest, Worldwide Underground found Badu enjoying critical acclaim for the crunk “Danger” and “Love of My Life Worldwide,” which featured femcees du jour Bahamadia, Queen Latifah, MC Lyte, and soul singer Angie Stone.

Badu also kept busy outside of the lab. In 2003, she founded her non-profit group, B.L.I.N.D. (Beautiful Love Incorporated Non-Profit Development), which is geared toward creating social change through economic, artistic, and cultural development. She also transformed the legendary Forest Theater in South Dallas into a headquarters for live shows and charity benefits. “When I came home, I saw the bad condition the building was in,” says Badu. “I felt like it was my job to reestablish music there, to reformat the whole thing and refit it.” Among B.L.I.N.D.’s many accomplishments, the organization has provided arts, crafts, and dance classes to children displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

In 2004, Badu gave birth to her daughter Puma Sabti, who she describes as a “mini-me.” In September of that same year, Badu appeared in the Brooklyn-based concert documentary Dave Chappelle’s Block Party, performing an animated set that included the hits “Back in the Day (Puff)” and the Grammy-winning smash “Love of My Life (An Ode to Hip-Hop).” Along with Queen Latifah and Jill Scott, Badu also founded a successful summer festival tour called Sugar Water. Also in 2004, Badu’s charitable efforts helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars to support the scholarship fund at St. Phillips School and Community Center in Dallas, Texas.

Badu flexed her entrepreneurial muscles with the launch of her own label, Control FreaQ, in 2005. The label, whose mission is to “free the slaves and the slave masters” by allowing signed artists to own their own masters in a 10-year conversion deal, operates primarily as a production house. Control FreaQ’s first project is developing New Orleans-born MC/Lyricist Jay Electronica. The label also produces remixed records and supports Badu’s side projects such as The Cannabinoids, the group she founded with Dallas-based DJs, musicians and beatsmiths, which is an improvisation production akin to a live “remix” set.

In 2008, as the U.S. engaged in the Iraq War and the nation prepared for an historic presidential election, Badu presented her own offering for the evolving times with New Amerykah Part One: 4th World War. Badu’s fourth studio album and the first installment of the two-part New Amerykah series kept Badu’s Hip-Hop spirit kindled. New Amerykah Part One boasts beats from the best soundsmiths in the game—including Madlib, 9th Wonder, Shafiq Husayn (for Sa-Ra Creative Partners), Sa-Ra, Karriem Riggins, Ahmir “?uestlove” Thompson of The Roots, James Poyser, Georgia Anne Muldrow, and Mike “Chav” Chavaria. With the singles “Honey” and “The Healer” generating significant cyberspace buzz, Badu reclaimed her cherished throne as a soul music phenom. New Amerykah Part One debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart and Rolling Stone named it one of the year’s best albums.

For the once self-proclaimed “analog girl,” Badu is now pushing the limits of the digital world. On February 1, 2009, Badu and boyfriend Jay Electronica blogged about the birth of their daughter Mars Merkab in real-time on the micro-blogging site Twitter, thus becoming the first celebrity couple to ever Tweet the birth of a child.

In 2010, Badu announced yet another new arrival: New Amerykah Part Two: Return Of The Ankh. Whereas Part One was social and political in tone, Part Two taps into the more romantic and emotional side of Badu. “It reminds me of the days of Baduizm,” she says. “It’s just about beats and rhymes in a cipher.” 

Indeed, diehard fans of Badu will love New Amerykah Part Two: Return Of The Ankh and newcomers to Badu’s world will be curiously intrigued by the mystique and authenticity of an artist who is totally comfortable in her own skin. Whether directing a dope music video or exposing her vulnerabilities in rhyme, Badu transcends image. Just like the Santeria priest she met in Cuba, Badu no longer tries to be, she just is.

For more information, please visit:

www.BaduWorld.com and www.ErykahBadu.com

Erykah Badu's Window Seat

In this video, Badu bares her soul and other things...

 

Emek, The Thinking Man's Poster Artist

Emek, the Israeli visual artist, responsible for rad artwork for the Grateful Dead, Ben Harper, Good Charlotte and so on has signed on to give Badu another commissioned album cover. If you can recall he did a brand spanking wonderful job with the first New Amerykah CD. Let's take a quick cyber gallery walk through his collection, shall we?

The last Badu cover...

Pretty deep shit, eh?  www.emek.net

Ms. Badu...Now I Can Die In Peace!

You guessed it...I met Erykah Badu in person tonight and she called me, "Sidik"! She's coming out with a new album and yours truly gets to do the bio again. The new joint is called New Amerykah: Return of the Ankh and judging from what I heard at the listening party (where I saw Corinne Bailey Rae, Dame Dash, and others and yes I'm namedropping, unabashedly)...shit is a gem. My favorite quote of the night from her: "Please don't record any of this music on your cell phone or laptop...let a bitch make some money!"

Erykah Badu at Governors Island

So I wake up yesterday to a call from Erykah Badu's publicist who tells me she has two extra tickets for Badu's concert at Governors Island in NYC and asks if I want to go. I say, "Sure," mad calm but on the inside I'm like, "Hell yeah! My magic leprechaun must have just got a raise because shit like this never happens!"

Anyway, my boy Noah and I go--this is our first time to Governors--and it's absolutely divine (except for the six dollar hamburgers). I saw Janelle Monae rock the crowd with her pompadour and James Brownesque energy (buy her CD by the way...I'm gonna). Badu came out in a top hat and did an goosebump-giving cover of Michael Jackson's "Off The Wall" among other dynamite hits. And get this, when she ended the show and folks were making their way back to the ferry, the lights came back on and she rocked the crowd for 20 minutes with "Bag Lady" and a slew of other classics. Shoot, I was happy. I got to chill in the sand and see my singing idol jump into the crowd as well as do a mad funny rendition of Tha Dogg Pound's "Ain't No Fun" (yep, she did say the "balls" line). It was good times, I say. Good times...