The pop queen of the worldwide underground, Erykah Badu, who will be battling as a part of The Cannabinoids at the Red Bull Soundclash in Dallas, Texas on Friday, October 16, 2009.
Erykah Badu is the analogue girl in a digital world and the Goddess of Neo Soul. Though she has abandoned the colourful turban, meanwhile known as a 'badu' in Western Africa, she's lost none of the power that have made her one of the goddesses of Neo Soul.
Born Erica Wright in 1971, she was introduced into showbusiness at the age of four by her mother, a jazz and vaudeville artiste from Texas. Her career got an overnight lift after she had opened a D’Angelo show in 1994, and she recorded her first album, the triple-platinum Baduizm (with bassist Ron Carter and members of hip-hop avatars The Roots), a '70s street funk, basement jazz, bohemian hip-hop amalgamation.
2000 saw her highly acclaimed follow up, Mama’s Gun. Worldwide Underground, a loose affair billed as an EP despite being longer than many full-length albums, was released in 2003. 2008's New AmErykah Pt 1 (4th World War), is being complemented by New AmErykah Pt 2 (Return of the Ankh), out in shops by the end of December 2009.
In person, Erykah Badu is strikingly beautiful. As the Dallas-born singer's emerald eyes shift about, they almost seem to reveal a smartness and soul glow.
Badu and her body of work – five albums since 1997 – are all about the connection between people and the Earth. In terms of exposed emotions, she has covered the subject of heartbreak and the existential feeling of being lost under the stars (or just inside your own mind) in a way that is reminiscent of Billie Holliday’s night sky blues, Joni Mitchell’s elaborate wisecracking and the sultry elegance of the Motown divas.
Also, the timbre of her childlike, lithe, yet hauntingly imperative voice is a reminder of Lady Day, but the lyrics of her songs are impregnated with a playfulness and wit.
In her songs, she has immortalised the 'bag lady' as a metaphor for women laden with the heavy weight of past relationships, the biblical image of the apple tree, and the sharp blandness of a drummer’s rimshot. The videos accompanying her musical output are almost entirely her own creation, from storyline and direction to outfit – and usually begin with the inserted words, 'A story by Erykah Badu'. She would be the first person to admit she influences every aspect of her own creations – not by chance is her own record company called Control Freaq.
Erykah’s taste for the mysterious doesn’t just reflect in her album titles but also in the names of her children. She has a son named Seven Sirius and two daughters named Puma Sabti and Mars Merkaba from three different fathers, among them André 3000 of OutKast and Jay Electronica.
Dividing her time between Brooklyn and Dallas, Badu organises the community project Beautiful Love Incorporated Non-Profit Development (BLIND). She has had acting cameos in Blues Brothers 2000, The Cyder House Rules and David Chapelle’s documentary Block Party. Her image is currently billboarded on New York City’s Times Square for Tom Ford’s new fragrance White Patchouli. As Ford has commented: "I always felt she was a true beauty."
Fashion-aware but always ready to be self-critical of her own appearance, Badu can be seen these days with either afro or bob wigs, huge spectacles and well-worn tracksuit bottoms. She loves to surprise her audience, and not just with changes of outfit: Shapeshifting her way through her acclaimed video for “Honey”, she almost becomes black music’s female Robert de Niro.
One of her most recent disguises is that of THC, as part of The Cannabinoids, an 11-piece band of live specialists. On Friday, October 16, Badu and The Cannabinoids will battle Oklahoma's electro poppers Shiny Toy Guns on two opposite stages at Victory Plaza in South Dallas in a Red Bull Soundclash. The two acts will go back and forth, performing a 'musical conversation'. As is the custom at Red Bull Soundclashes, the screaming and (hopefully) applauding audience’s decibel level will decide who the winner will be.
Erykah will have home advantage, but then again, this spiritual performer probably has one on every planet in the galaxy…
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