Word: badue
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...afternoon last fall, I happened upon Erykah Badu's debut video "On and On." Coming on late in Black Entertainment Television's "Planet Groove"--after an hour and half of rejects from the Mary J. Blige school of intonation and generic girl groups whose lyrics made the Spice Girls seem like Joni Mitchell--"On & On" was unlike anything I had seen or heard in awhile. A pastel-infused riff inspired by The Color Purple, I fell in love with the song's sweet sass, thoughtful hip-hop jazz-poetry. In the year of 'Lil Kim, Erykah was a refreshing surprise...
Early this year, people nationwide embraced the joys of Badu. Radio stations fixated on the latest X-Scape knock-off and started playing "On & On" in heavy rotation. On the strength of her critically acclaimed, multi-platinum debut album Baduizm, she headlined this year's "Smokin Grooves" tour. Badu was christened the sole female (Adrina Evans anyone?) in the neo-funk pantheon along with D'Angelo, Maxwell and Toni Rich. Her success showed '90s rhythm and blues could be smart, innovative and sexy...
Just as D'Angelo is not exactly Marvin Gaye for the '90s, Billie Holiday incarnate Badu isn't. Certainly there will never be another Billie Holiday. What Badu is, though, is a gifted lyricist and vocalist who has a great knowledge of African-American music history, as well as a desire to innovate. On her live album she not only evokes Billie Holiday, Chaka Kahn, Roy Ayres and Miles Davis, but she also demonstrates an amazing originality and octave range. Live is a jazzy portrait of a charming Southern gal as funk goddess. Posing on the cover as a very...
Taken from a recent New York concert, the Live album covers the best material from Baduizm, finding new life in its hits. Live begins with a rift on Miles' "So What" with background singers cooing "Badu." She goes quickly into a breezy rendition of "Rim Shot." "On & On" starts out as a fairly slow number, until midway through when Badu begins to rap. Using the beat from Lil Kim's hit-that-will-not-die, "Crush on You," she proves herself to be an above-average emcee with such lines as "You can read about Badu in your...
...beginning of "Apple Tree," she coos, "I can't control the soul flowin' in me," going on to prove it with scat refrains culminating in a call-and-response exchange with the audience. In "Apple Tree" as well as throughout Live, Badu lets her Southern accent creep beautifully into her phrasing, turning a there into "thur" and a can't into a lingering "caint...