Erykah Badu: C /D, S&D

What I've heard by her I'm indifferent to. Indifferent, note: not excited, but not repulsed as I am by Macy Gray and her acolytes. I can't help thinking that Badu was the (unwitting?) catalyst for the whole odious u-soul thing in that she appeared before any of its perpetrators (and before Lauryn Hill had gone solo) and her influence seems to have run through those who have followed.

So: Erykah Badu - not dud / subsequent nu-soul - ultimate dud.

Macy Gray needs to go far, far away. Jill Scott rocks the house like nobody's business.

i was just expressing to josh how much i like jill scott better than erykah. i need to think about this for a while.

"On and On" was great. Subsequently releases have been progressively mediocre (funny how D'Angelo and Erykah have both nosedived considerably as the genre they helped create has risen in profile). Jill Scott is much better, 'cos she has actual tunes, delightful voice and relatively nice production. Angie Stone should be a house diva, not an R&B diva. Musiq Soulchild is forgettable. India.Arie = too far pleased with herself.

If Miles actually said that about Louis Armstrong, he's an even bigger idiot than I thought he was, and you're an even bigger idiot than him for going along with that nonsense.

BTW, unlike TimF I think that Erykah Badu and D'Angelo have improved a lot since their debuts.

Ooh, two top lies in one small sentence. a. Miles hated Satchmo = rubbish, because he workshipped him and never stopped saying so. b. Satchmo as Uncle Tom = typical latecome look-at-me advertorial by young soon-to-be-sellouts manipulatively presenting THEIR industry-friendliness as some species of Radical Cultural Politics. Armstrong = most revolutionary American artist of 20th century in all art-forms (by some way).

Destiny's Child = second. (OK, I'm joking. Fourth.)

But this bullshit about you-chumps-are-in-denial-blah-blah is still bullshit.

I agree! The music industry does it all time! To say they don't and i'm crazy for thinking so is seriously pathetic. When Ms. Badu first came out she was critically acclaimed and recieved lots of airplay. As she progressed as an artist her views and music became more radical. The american press and radio pretty much pushed her aside. The record company didn't publisize her last record in the states at all. Now that her head is shaved and she's talking hardcore black power, she is a complete nobosy as far as the buisness is concerned. Fortunatly she can still pack an arena so she can still make hers. Bling Bling. Oh and Miles did say that about Satchmo.

Using me to go off on a misdirected rant = DUD.

saw her on wednesday at manchester apollo -she asked the crowd "y'all wanna throw y' hands in the air and scream y' own name?" and then everybody (everybody!) did just that.

you didn't get that on radiohead's tent tour i'll tells y' that.

"Love of My Life" has the honour of being the first track that I regret not hearing in time for a best of 2002 list. It's not the first hip-hop nostalgia song, but it's the first one I've heard that really gives a feeling of what it's like to grow up with hip-hop ("I met him when I was a lttle girl...") And then Common genderfucks the personification, and even gives the gangstas their due (aside: is Electric Circus any good?) If the track lacks harsh words to say about its subject, that's not the purpose of odes.

Nice orchestral/kitchen appliance/something sound FX too. Anyone know who produced this - Erykah, or someone else?

I dont know where to start, this is crass racial paternalism at it's most disgusting.

.....or perhaps it's simply a difference of opinion.

one of the best artists of the last ten years.

Finally:

Erykah Badu revealed the new title of her fourth album, "Nu AmErykah," to a small room of fans in New York's Electric Lady studios last Thursday (Dec. 6). The set is due Feb. 26 via Universal Motown.

In reference to the prior provisional title, "Kabbah," Badu says that that name was never final and that she prefers to wait and title her albums once they're finished.

"I named this album 'Nu AmErykah' because I'm dealing with whatever is to come instead of what was," said Badu, decked out in jeans, a red kimono and her trademark afro. "In taking on a project like this, I'm taking the responsibility to talk for my race and my planet. I'm sure the record company will make their money and they've given me the blessing of time."

Badu's last EP, "Worldwide Underground," arrived in 2003 without much fanfare, but it still sold 609,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. "I didn't feel like doing the whole promotional circuit for that record," she admitted. "I'd just had a baby."

Making up for lost time, "Nu AmErykah" includes 18 songs that will be spread over two separately sold discs. The first single, "Honey," was produced by 9th Wonder and the '70s soul-tinged "Soldier 7" may be the follow-up track.

"We've waited almost 10 years for this album to come," said Universal executive vice president and Motown president Sylvia Rhone. "She inspires, sets trends and does music that no one's done before. Male, female, black white can listen to her and come away with something."

Here is the track list for "Nu AmErykah":

"American Promise"
"The Healer"
"Me"
"My People"
"Speech"
"Soldier 7"
"The Cell"
"Twinkle"
"Love Me"
"Honey"
"Emotions"
"Don't Be Long"
"YPOM"
"Hot Slow Jam"
"Jump Up in the Air"
"Loretta Brown"
"Dirty Dirty"
"The Healer Outro"

release date?

Feb. 26th

awes

i love her.

...and I still haven't fucking heard Mama's Gun. WTF?

I confess, I looked for No I.D. in the credits after the first listen

yeah this is clearly her worst album but it's not at all bad, i'm very glad to have her back. "next 2 you" is easily one of the weakest tracks, most tracks are doing more than that

I remember reading an interview with her from around Nu-Amerykah pt 2 where she said she really thinks of herself as a rapper (who doesn't rap), and writes to beats on a loop. So really anything that's not loop-based ('Green Eyes' is the big one that comes to mind) is the anomaly.

she really made that approach work on the new amerykahs. this isn't as strong as those but it's in the same lineage

yeah, thats her idea of going back to basics in a sense, but there's getting a song out of a 'beat', there's tracks that aren't just beats (on & on), there's transcending beats (nu amerykah), and then theres just writing to beats. Tbh I don't care if she thinks she's a rapper, she's not one, her best stuff is melodic and song based, even if she thinks it's all about her lyrics (which are usually memorable TBF) and hip hop doesn't really need her. Plus Georgia Anne muldrow already exists. End of rant. I should really listen to this thing now it's out lol

something dense about this that i can't quite grasp. hoping a full lyrics transcript is forthcoming.

tangential:
been eyeing this discogs listing for a while...

Liking this, I agree it's a vibes thing. I know nothing about Alchemist and I'm uh, not very aware of the beat makers in general. What's the deal with him and why are people here not down with him?

i think people are less expressing dislike of the alchemist and more just saying that his old school boom bap style is not a very exciting direction for badu to go in

I am mildly perplexed by the reaction to this album here. I think it’s fantastic and very much of a piece with her overall artistic vision.

I've had it playing in the background all morning. "Breezy," "Crossfade," "I Just Play a Part," and "Love Me Not" are the standouts.

her overall artistic vision was to forget worrying about vocal melodies completely?

for an r+b singer, that's kind of a perplexing move.

I love alchemist. And not surprised to see westside Gunn on the tracklisting. Surprised he didn't just bring in Bronson, roc Marci and Muggs too lol

Maybe badu should have just done a full on rap collabo album with all the guts alchemist likes, Mach hommy too

*guys

haven't listened yet, what's the Westside "AYO!" count?

BADU YOU EVER COOK HALF A BRICK IN AN AIR FRYER?

Guess it's good she didn't get them to assist with a rework of other side of the game.

Thoughts on "Witch Doctor," aka the song where she calls out Anne Frank's name and you hear a little cash register sound?

'Cause a witch is just a medium
And a medium like the media
And you eat it up, what they feedin' you
That's witchcraft, that's witchcraft
You believe it 'cause you need it
And they bank on it, Anne Frank on it [cash register sound]
And you eat it up, what they feedin' you
That's witchcraft, that's witchcraft

"rapper expresses cynicism about jewish culture" not an uncommon trope iirc

Black Box is the standout for me

I am not super sanguine about that line but I also didn’t notice it at all when I was listening to the album (honestly I don’t think I could quote any of the lyrics back, I was just listening to vibes)

I saw someone mention it on Bluesky so I pulled up the track (which was apparently one of the advance singles) on Qobuz.

I've only listened to a few tracks so far; what I've heard sounds good. Badu's not someone I listen to very often, but the Amerykah albums, at least, are brilliant.

Somewhere someone is thinking that Anne frank line is a clever bit of wordplay

I used to not like Alchemist's low thuddy snares, but I don't care anymore (or maybe I just burned out on rim clicks and handclaps). Enjoying this a lot more than I expected to.

Still not heard this so not sure what that Anne frank line means, but I remembered alchemist is Jewish (he did an album called Israeli salad which had some great beats) fwiw.

'best' case is she's doing lazy/stupid/awful jews=money free association, worst case is she's incoherently trying to say something about anne frank being made up by the media or something like that

it's also not a song i want to hear again by choice because it has nothing tuneful or songlike about it.

i don't want to use words like "misguided" or "directionless" because that's not for me to say. while i don't think it's BAD -it sounds okay while it's on and the last track is a nice changeup- but i did giggle a little about it in light of this recent post: the inert, gauzy dreaminess that is everywhere now

she should do something like a eugene mcdaniels covers ep where they let her add a rap verse on every track.

I barely listen to rap anymore but 'I got that Arab money' was popular for a while so this might just be like 'i got that Jewish money' but obv laced with 'Jews are all rich', or Jews are on it/controlling it.

maybe she is talking francs, the defunct currency? maybe?

She's daffy as hell. At one point on twitter she was defending R Kelly. Pretty sure this was after all of the holy shit accusations were out but he wasn't found guilty. Loads of people WTF'd her and her reply amounted to I know what I feel, I don't need the facts.

*removes album from cart*

It was a good run

She said r Kelly, bill Cosby and someone else I can't remember, just needed or deserved 'radical empathy'

she's seemed to take joy in adopting ridiculous contrarian positions over the years

Idk if that's contrarian (but she is one of those too) or it's that she believes in radical empathy for black people as she thinks they live in a racist system (racist system aside, an abuser is still an abuser ofc). I've not looked into her comments deeply enough to know.

Actually her contrarianism is likely connected to the belief that because America is racist, judgements like those given to r Kelly should be resisted.

she wasn't really making it about race, she was extending her radical empathy (which was just some hippie nonsense of trying to find the good in everyone and 'hurt people hurt people') even to like, hitler and louis ck and when people got mad at her she admitted she was choosing deliberately terrible examples to make a point (though idk what) about compassion or something

so contrarianism + hippie nonsense

I don’t think radical empathy is “hippie nonsense” but I also don’t practice it

She did say r Kelly had done more for the black community than anyone which is partly why I think race was a factor in her asking ppl to empathise with cosby and Kelly, even if it's not to do with her views on Hitler (I googled badu and Hitler and discovered she thought he was a good painter lol). Interested to know her views on other villains of history now.

She thought Stalin might have made a fine Orthodox priest.

this conversation again?

my last thoughts for now: i'm happy she's still able to make music, but this is too cynical and intentionally unmusical for me to be able to enjoy. 2 mics.

it prompted me to revisit the roots' 2010 conscious hiphop makeover album 'wake up!' with john legend and it's still pretty satisfying, as this sort of thing goes. 'wake up!' is way more classic-minded, so i definitely think there's ideas to be explored in terms of harsh social+media analysis in music. i don't get the feeling that erykah cares if anyone actually hears her music, so it feels like giving up instead of fighting back.

She’s said that live performances are more important to her than albums.

Tempted to see her play in London next month I think but it's a good couple hundred pounds and not sure what she's like live these days. Not seen her in about twenty years though so maybe i need to.

'wake up!' is way more classic-minded

I mean, it's a covers album?

Tempted to see her play in London next month I think but it's a good couple hundred pounds and not sure what she's like live these days. Not seen her in about twenty years though so maybe i need to.

I was tempted too, until I saw the ticket prices. I miss the world where she played a sold-out Brixton Academy and made it feel as intimate as a jazz club, for less than two days' pay.

i like this more than i anticipated. i don't think anything really works as a single, kinda need to just let the album play in full. it actually feels more of a piece w/ the new amerykahs to me than i thought it would, it almost plays like a coda or b-sides type record to those two. i think if i was going to level a criticism it's that you get some of the floaty/vibey or more lighthearted/funny aspects of her previous album but w/o the stuff such as, even going back to NA2, "window seat" or "gone baby, don't be long" which is to say, like, stunning songs. like i'm not sure what song i would take off this album and play repeatedly on its own, but it takes on more form in the second half, pretty good album.

previous albums*

checking out his bandcamp i think its safe to say that the alchemist really hates digital downloads.

The first track "Echos" has become my jam, most reminiscent of "Master Teacher" and those second side Return of the Ankh jams.

yeah it opens w/ its best foot forward