Erykah Badu is the black Bjork

and i think she's kinda close (not quite, but close)

Badu's one of those people I can't be bothered to buy anything by but I'd totally listen to for free.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Rzkd4hOKD4

There are at least 10 of these.

Dawn Richard is covering a Bjork song now

my first reaction to this thread title is to scoff, of course, because it's a descriptor that seems to diminish everyone involved - "black björk" feels more like a snappy PR phrase (one to hook people in who would typically ignore a black artist) than a description that could possibly be meaningful. björk's discography is way too diverse to be a sonic signifier, for one thing, unless you just mean "solo female artist with experimental tendencies who doesn't seem tied to a particular genre or scene" in which case there are surely more useful ways to describe her. "black björk" is also problematic insofar as it's predicated on assumptions as to what black people sound like.

it's interesting that since this thread was start at least two nominally r&b artists have described themselves as being or wanting to be "the black björk" - solange, in those exact words, and dawn richard, in all but those exact words. solange said it while releasing a pretty trad motowny album with a couple of token electronic experiments; neither then nor when she went full-on indie-r&b did i think of her as "björk-like" in even the broadest sense. with dawn it's definitely more noticeable especially with blackheart being so in its own lane, as well as actual sonic comparison points (oddly, the björk era that seems most of an influence on blackheart is medúlla, all the weird vocal treatments and processing and layering on tracks like "titans" and "projection").

butttt seeing this thread actually made me think, ok, erykah is definitely a genius auteur in her own lane, like björk, but they experiment in such different directions that it's hard to really be a useful comparison. but! actually, it's not the sonics that are comparable but the songwriting - they both have a way of folding very quotidian details and phrasing into the larger tapestry of their work - this combination of the domestic with the cosmic, like you may be in awe of how far out they've gone but they also feel like they could be sitting in your kitchen drinking a cup of tea. (that's one of erykah's, that "i think i need a cup of tea" at the height of "on & on").

(and that kind of songwriting is def not one that either dawn or solange do)

i am so glad that a sentence like this from the opening post

with her crazy clothes, crazy hair and vocal wackiness, she is becoming the black bjork

would be mocked and derided out of town these days. criiiiinge

A "taking sides" would have been more interesting to read. I like Badu, I can't stand Bjork and I don't think she can sing.

i don't think putting them up against each other would make any sense!

all wrong. nicolette is the REAL black bjork :)

or maybe its that badu has always been the american nicolette. listen to sly on protection, and that was a couple of years before badu came out. badu didnt do anything that 'unusual' until nu-amerykah.

not sure how id like this now but i loved it back then -
http://www.discogs.com/Nicolette-Life-Loves-Us/master/110393

is nicolette still making music? i love 'sly' and a few of her solo nineties things.

no idea if shes still around. last thing i heard was 2005. bjork is def more prolific than her or badu!

Lex otm... I actually thought about "On & On" the first time I heard "It's Not Up To You" and Björk suddenly spouts "six glasses of water / seven phone calls"

My sense of "I want to be the new/male/black Björk" or any kind of Björk-fascination coming from any musician, the fascination has less to do with the functional qualities of Björk's music and more "what she is", the specific niche she occupies, and the relationship she has with her consumer-base. In that regard alone, Badu is pretty close as a nexus of pop/art/id, even if her music is worlds apart.

nothing to add to this discush aside from a goodspirited "classic old ilx" at a noise board era jaxon board post word-for-word anticipating solange and dawn richards, but this thread being bumped got me listening to badu all weekend so thx :~)

lex and fgti posts validating this threads existence

not to mention Badu and Bjork's existence validating the thread's existence.

No, they validate MY existence.

the fascination has less to do with the functional qualities of Björk's music and more "what she is", the specific niche she occupies, and the relationship she has with her consumer-base

ha yeah and also the combination of total artistic freedom with massive success i'd guess too

lol did Solange actually say that smh

when i interviewed her like 7 years ago

Bjork is down with Nicolette and they have friends in common, dunno re Erykah Badu

co-sign what Lex is saying about the way that the whole culture's ways of talking about this stuff has moved on since the original post and that that is nice to see and that the premise "black bjork" is kinda weird

tho the fall out about Beck/Beyonce/the Grammies is showing us that these associations of whiteness with auteurism and "artistry" are all too alive and well, and that's why people are shook about Kanye's remarks (aside from the lol Kanyepaws aspect)

if the convo is about wacky hair, well, okay, you could point out that Erykah's big Afro wigs circa a long time ago and Bjork's big wige on the Biophilia tour were/are roughly comparable in size, so that confirms the thrust of this very surface signifier oriented comparison. but Bjork was doing the big hair thing as a Chaka Khan-hommage via a Bernhard Willem fashionista angle. To state the obvious, she's not an American and when she thinks about race she does so as someone who moved from the racial monoculture of Iceland to the diversity of London, so she doesn't carry around the instincts and reflexes and baggage that come with an American saturation in our racialized history. Part of what looks "wacky" to people is really just the specificity of that origin and that history coming out.

oops big wig, not wige, dunno what a wige is

such bjork

"crazy hair" is a weird thing to read about them both in 2003 bc i don't recall any particularly crazy björk hairstyle at that point and erykah's hair was just natural, so pretty offensive to call that "crazy"

Somebody school me on Nicolette.

xp naw, she was definitely wearing afro wigs. remember when it blew off in the chappelle movie?

It was the movie moment of the year.

Nicolette was awesome, this track is my favourite anarchist anthem of all time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHExVS09qRI

Too bad her career seems to have bombed after the second album, I would've loved to hear more.

nicolette's first album was brilliant, "no government" seconded

Both artists were at their most famous in the mid-90s, probably the most welcoming decade for female eccentricity in pop music. Idiosyncratic women songwriters were everywhere to be found... I'm not sure I'm a fan of the comparison, you could throw it away lightly back then since everyone wanted to be zany and personal.... and maybe 11 years ago it made more sense but in context, yeah, they were both 'zany' pop stars from the 90s that still have a fervent fanbase and continue to release interesting, personal music that has deviated from their more relaxed, relatable sound they were initially known for. Nowadays their creative ambitions are very different which is why I don't see the comparison clearly. Badu seeks to continue improving her trademark sound, Bjork seems to hate the comfort zone and is continuously looking to stray away from any kind of fixated style. For me their both great artists that have nothing significant in common and saying x is the black version of y is just a stupid way of pigeonholing people and race.

ha i wrote this on my blog when New Amerykah: Part One came out and is v similar to what moka just posted

"I tend to mentally associate Erykah Badu with artists like Bjork or Tori Amos, deeply idiosyncratic women that were briefly pretty major stars in the 90's, probably the most welcoming era for female eccentricity that American pop music has ever known, and have since retreated into a comfortable cult following. Even though that comparison doesn't totally line up -- somehow I reckon Badu's fanbase isn't as heavy on gothy teenagers as Bjork's or Amos's -- I think there are some strong parallels there."

ha well i guess there was a reason i was obsessed with all three of those as a (non-gothy) teenager

afaict, Nicolette has never really had any profile in the US? (correct me if wrong)

were massive attack ever big over there in the trip-hop days?

she never exactly had a huge post-massive attack solo profile anywhere

"we never know" was a highlight of that nicolette album too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxyemSXmfcU

I'd throw in Polly Jean Harvey except she isn't pop like Bjork and Badu are -- also, male critics loved her more than they did Bjork and Badu.

pj harvey had a more masculine, brawnier sound, so thats not a surprise. she also liked a lot of old blues guys and old rock dudes who old rock critics also liked (you think these guys are going to give a shit about roy ayers or chaka khan? doubtful).

nicolettes 2005 album is underrated, if only for the song titles. not that i expect her to have even a badu-type status, but theres next to no black british females who have had much of a career, never mind weird ones like her.

Intro - Life Is But A Dream
Groovy 3:16
Frenchified Interlude: Ton Allure
Sunshine 5:28
Idealistic Interlude: a) Stork
Idealistic Interlude: b) Bass Player
Jenny 6:36
Family Values Interlude: a) Welsh Accent
Family Values Interlude: b) So Tired
Fire In The Heart 5:29
Food Interlude: a) Feast
Food Interlude: b) Saag Lamb
Wholesome 6:02
Life Interlude: a) Life Loves Us
Life Interlude: b) Yesterdays
Down Day 6:47
Nothing Matters Interlude: a) It's All Good
Nothing Matters Interlude: b) To Think But Not Think
High Wave 4:33
Benevolent Interlude: a) If You're Singing And Stuff
Benevolent Interlude: b) Dad's Song
Benevolent Interlude: c) One Choice, Your Pick
I Am Where The Party's At 7:38
Party Interlude: a) Where Are You From?
Party Interlude: b) Granny's Knighthood
Pretty Autumn Shade 5:08
Clarity Interlude: Be Kind Unto Me
Worship 7:34
Birthday Interlude: Happy Birthday Nicolette
Soulfully 5:08
Unguent Waves: Open Demonstrations Of Affection As Natural As Breathing
Guru 5:30
Peace And Love Interlude: a) Practice
Peace And Love Interlude: b) Family Values II
Outro - Life Is But A Dream

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5hivDXm5wY

used to hear this one at parties quite a lot, the breakdown at 3:10 is fierce

joan armatrading was quirky. she had a career. and people loved her in the u.s.!

i had no idea about nicolette. never heard it ever. i like it!

sade seems to be getting weirder. we love her too. (speaking for all americans...)

i never even knew about the second nicolette album! those song titles are quite something.

i was into "no government" as a teenager and i never quite clocked just how radical the lyrics were...

scott: I've been jamming to Armatrading's Sleight of Hand the last week.

I can't believe I haven't heard Nicolette yet.

but theres next to no black british females who have had much of a career, never mind weird ones like her.

― StillAdvance, Monday, February 16, 2015 10:33 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i guess there are the others who emerged out of massive attack/tricky collaborations - shara nelson, martina topley-bird obv...i'm sure there must have been others around that time?

shara nelson's "friendly fire" sounds like a '90s jessie ware

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqJ3HKutrJk

I liked that first Shara Nelson album from the early nineties -- was thinking about it when playing the new Rosin Murphy single

were massive attack ever big over there in the trip-hop days?

They had a following among tastemaker types (although apparently Mezzanine was their first album to chart in the US) but the only real mainstream exposure they've ever really gotten here is "Teardrop" as the theme for the tv show House ten years after the fact.

Hmmm, "Safe From Harm" was their only single to even make the dance charts in the US.

Mezzanine was a massive Gap/Banana Republic perennial 1998-2002 iirc.

I heard "Unfinished Sympathy" on the Sliver soundtrack first. "Protection" got airplay three years later cuz Tracey Thorn.

Both artists were at their most famous in the mid-90s, probably the most welcoming decade for female eccentricity in pop music. Idiosyncratic women songwriters were everywhere to be found... I'm not sure I'm a fan of the comparison, you could throw it away lightly back then since everyone wanted to be zany and personal.... and maybe 11 years ago it made more sense but in context, yeah, they were both 'zany' pop stars from the 90s that still have a fervent fanbase and continue to release interesting, personal music that has deviated from their more relaxed, relatable sound they were initially known for. Nowadays their creative ambitions are very different which is why I don't see the comparison clearly. Badu seeks to continue improving her trademark sound, Bjork seems to hate the comfort zone and is continuously looking to stray away from any kind of fixated style. For me their both great artists that have nothing significant in common and saying x is the black version of y is just a stupid way of pigeonholing people and race.

― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Monday, February 16, 2015 9:59 PM (49 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ha i wrote this on my blog when New Amerykah: Part One came out and is v similar to what moka just posted

"I tend to mentally associate Erykah Badu with artists like Bjork or Tori Amos, deeply idiosyncratic women that were briefly pretty major stars in the 90's, probably the most welcoming era for female eccentricity that American pop music has ever known, and have since retreated into a comfortable cult following. Even though that comparison doesn't totally line up -- somehow I reckon Badu's fanbase isn't as heavy on gothy teenagers as Bjork's or Amos's -- I think there are some strong parallels there."

― raccoon tanuki dye dashiki nefertiti edges kinky (some dude)

Whoa! hahaha I swear I hadn't read that before posting, strikingly similar choice of words.

Love Deluxe brought their sound to the US airwaves tho. xps

i kept bugging the stores in philly to get safe from harm 12 inch at the time. think it was out in the u.k. but not here. but they got popular pretty quick after that. you know, relatively popular. like, underworld popular here? maybe not tricky or portishead popular.

i compare the last nicolette album to vespertine. not exactly cos they sound alike or have a similar mood, they dont, nicolettes album is lighter, more whimsical, perkier, but they have a similar approach to sonics i think, something quite discrete, delicate, dainty maybe.

that no government music definitely reminds me of bjork. but its not bjork which makes me like it more.

i uh respect bjork and all that...

seems like a good night to listen to Worldwide Underground brb

Whoa! hahaha I swear I hadn't read that before posting, strikingly similar choice of words.

― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Monday, February 16, 2015 5:50 PM (33 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol yeah wasn't implying that or anything, shit like that happens sometimes and it's freaky

while were doing black artists and bjork, its worth mentioning prince used to be a fan. i wonder if they ever tried to work together (prob best they didnt obv).

i just wrote a giant 2k word thing about Badu last week and i'm bummed that a) it hasn't run yet and b) she's performing 20 minutes away from where i live last night and tonight and i didn't realize it til well after the shows sold out.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/at-the-fillmore-silver-spring-still-enchanted-by-erykah-badu/2015/02/16/9d3e8a1c-b60e-11e4-aa05-1ce812b3fdd2_story.html

Saw Badu in Durham, NC on Valentine's Day. Flight was late, came on stage in sweatpants and sweatshirt straight from arriving apparently and absolutely killed it. Perhaps the single best live performance I've ever witnessed. Her humor was a huge part of the show. She is a complete entertainer with no flash/bang/props/acrobatics/etc necessary.