- Baduizm · 1997
- Mama's Gun · 2000
- Baduizm · 1997
- The Album (Deluxe) · 2020
- Things Fall Apart · 1999
- New Amerykah, Pt. 2: Return of the Ankh · 2009
- Mama's Gun · 2000
- Live · 1997
- Go! - Common Classics · 2002
- Baduizm · 1997
- Live · 1997
- But You Caint Use My Phone (Mixtape) · 2015
- Baduizm · 1997
Essential Albums
- After a five-year break from releasing music, neo-soul icon Erykah Badu returned in 2008 with this masterpiece of avant-garde R&B and forward-thinking hip-hop. Building on the sociopolitical vision of Marvin Gaye and Sly Stone, she establishes a transcendental mood on “The Healer”—a Madlib-assisted rumination on the power of hip-hop—while voicing the struggles of single black mothers on the beautifully woozy “That Hump.” Her voice is especially powerful on “Soldier,” while “Twinkle” culminates in a furious call to action.
- Like everyone else, we first fell in love with Erykah Badu on her 1997 debut single, “On & On.” But it was her 2000 sophomore studio album, Mama’s Gun—creatively restless, stylistically adventurous, lyrically direct—that made us stay in love. The screaming live-band funk of opener “Penitentiary Philosophy” tells you right away you shouldn’t settle in expecting a rehash of her debut’s smooth R&B. And while a remix of “Bag Lady” was its biggest single, we’ll never get over album closer “Green Eyes,” a wrenching, ravishing song suite narrating the end of a relationship.
- On her debut, Baduizm, Erykah Badu makes herself one of the late ’90s’ most irresistible singer-songwriters by attaching her slightly buttery, slightly vinegary pipes to jazz-informed, hip-hop-friendly grooves and an outlook at once spacey and grounded. “Other Side of the Game” took the point of view of a woman whose husband is deeply in the gangsta life; “Next Lifetime” displayed a sense of humor about Badu’s New Age beliefs by promising that reincarnation would eventually bring her together with a potential lover.
Albums
Artist Playlists
- She's a modern-day soul sister.
- A fearless diva mining music's diverse past.
- 2019
- 2003
- 2001
- 2000
Live Albums
- 1997
Appears On
- Strange Fruit Project
- Flying Lotus
- Supanovaslom
- Strange Fruit Project
More To Hear
- Nadeska Alexis celebrates 25 years of Erykah Badu’s iconic debut album.
- Erykah Badu shares songs to help you breathe and stay centered.
- The artist shares songs to help you breathe and stay centered.
- The artist shares songs to help you breathe and stay centered.
- Erykah Badu shares songs to help you breathe and stay centered.
- Female legends and pioneers, played back-to-back.
- A full and frank discussion on all things baby-related.
More To See
- 24:45
About Erykah Badu
As fearless as she is unpredictable, Erykah Badu is one of American music’s true originals. Indeed, no one could have predicted just how unique her trajectory would be when the singer and songwriter—born Erica Wright, in Dallas, in 1971—first became a leading light of the neo-soul movement alongside friends like D’Angelo and The Roots with the 1997 release of her first hit single, “On & On,” and Baduizm, her impossibly cool full-length debut. While Badu’s deft and playful vocal delivery garnered early comparisons with Billie Holiday, her creative vision proved to be much broader than the slinky, coffee-bar-ready jazz and soul of her early releases. On 2000’s Mama’s Gun and both parts of 2008’s ambitious New Amerykah, Pt. 1 (4th World War), Badu crafted her own bewitching and sometimes bewildering brand of soul, funk, and psychedelia, which she laced with stinging sociopolitical commentary and sly humor. Blazing her own trail, she became an icon and inspiration to younger musical adventurers like Flying Lotus, Georgia Anne Muldrow, and Tyler, The Creator, all of whom later became her collaborators. In 2015, Badu ended a seven-year hiatus as a recording artist with But You Caint Use My Phone, a deliriously odd and enthralling mixtape filled with her riffs and spins on Drake’s then-inescapable “Hotline Bling.” Only Badu could carry off such a wild idea and do it with such imagination and style.
- HOMETOWN
- Dallas, TX, United States
- BORN
- February 26, 1971