Let Erykah sing the hook, and your song might become a classic. Listen to her voice blend with Outkast and Cee-Lo’s on “Humble Mumble,” or “Liberation.” Check her out with the slick blowout and soft retro waves in this Sergio Mendes and Will-I-Am’s “That Heat.” She’s the ultimate hook singing video chick in my book. I also admire her for speaking out through her music, and improving so many hip hop songs with her hooks and background vocals. She makes fun of the makeover machine in this hilarious, brief interview, where she advises wannabe pop stars to get breast, butt, and calf implants, and to “just be butt nekkid with glitter on ya, and a beeper.” Ha! Erykah Badu always knew exactly who she was, so she never felt the need to give into the black Hollywood image machine, emerging blonde and long-haired on the other side as so many individualistic afrobellas have done in the past. Erykah delivers the goods on stage, and the whole audience is transported into her magical world. If you’ve never seen her live, I highly recommend you check her out ASAP. Like she says herself, “I’m “Cleva”, and I’m alright with me!” She’ll rock a ginormous fro, like in this live video for “Black in the Day,” and shaved it all off, like in this live video for “Kiss Me.” She’s beautiful and brave enough to pull off the most extreme hairstyles. She’s worn it straight like Cher, or in long braids. That’s because her hair journey has mirrored our own. She spoke straight to me (and many other bellas I know) with “Bag Lady.” I’m still learning to let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go.Įrykah is often cited as one of the biggest celebrities to influence women to go natural, and you’ll find photos of her in many of the Nappturality member’s photo sites as a hair inspiration. This was the jam when it came out, am I right bellas? This song was on the radio every hour on the hour! I love it when she’s sassy and funny, like in “Tyrone,” one of my all-time favorite break up songs. Women who may never have worn an afrocentric hairstyle or outfit before have been inspired by Erykah’s fiercely ethnic beauty. Her big brown almond eyes and impossibly tall headwrap made her an imposing figure among her scantily clad R&B counterparts from the onset.Įrykah embraces an exotic image, and it totally works for her. She’s positively otherworldly as she strides across the desert in the video for “Didn’t Cha Know”.
In “Otherside of The Game” and “Next Lifetime,” she captures this unusual, timeless quality. To this day, Baduizm is a fixture in my CD collection. She seemed like an earth angel, with a nasal twang of a voice akin to that of Billie Holiday’s. Erykah was – is- such a breath of fresh air in the game. She strutted on the screen in that green headwrap and commanded us to listen.
Remember the first time you saw Erykah Badu’s video for “On and On”? I do. Let me take y’all back a few years, back to 1997.