“I've always known that the drum would outlast the gun,” Erykah Badu tells host Ebro Darden in the first episode of Apple Music's series The Message. “It's just something I walk with and breathe with. It doesn't mean that I am not fearful and I don't fear things, because I do, but I'm confident. That makes me be brave.” Music was Erykah Badu’s anchor even before she began making it, and the singer delivers a wealth of her most personal inspirations on this playlist, created by her exclusively for Apple Music's The Message, the show where Black music's most prominent voices talk life, struggle and the music that's helped them push through. Since her game-changing 1997 debut Baduizm, the Dallas, Texas-raised star has made music that spoke directly to the Black experience, and that of Black women specifically. Never one to bite her tongue on- or off-record, Erykah has carved out a legacy in Black culture of nurturing and support. The voices here have provided both for her, and will certainly be familiar to Black music fans of a certain age—Stevie Wonder, Donny Hathaway and Earth, Wind & Fire make multiple appearances. But their, well, messages transcend any era, and are as applicable today as when first laid to record. The woman of the hour makes an appearance here as well, with Badu including her own 2000 cut “Time's a Wastin'” as motivation for everyone in the struggle (“Boy, don't let your focus change/Taking out the demons in your range,” she sings). Listen to her playlist here and check out her interview with Apple Music host Ebro Darden about her life and why her selections are as relevant as ever.