Erykah Badu on Apple Music (2024)

New Amerykah, Pt. 1 (4th World War)

After a five-year break from releasing music, neo-soul icon Erykah Badu returned in 2008 with this masterpiece of avant-garde R&B and forward-thinking hip-hop. Building on the sociopolitical vision of Marvin Gaye and Sly Stone, Badu establishes a transcendental mood in “The Healer”—a Madlib-assisted rumination on the power of hip-hop—while voicing the struggles of single black mothers in the beautifully woozy “That Hump”. Her voice is especially powerful on “Soldier”, while “Twinkle” culminates in a furious call to action.

Mama's Gun

Like everyone else, we first fell in love with Erykah Badu on her 1997 debut single, “On & On”. But it was her 2000 sophom*ore studio album, Mama’s Gun—creatively restless, stylistically adventurous, lyrically direct—that made us stay in love. The screaming live-band funk of opener “Penitentiary Philosophy” tells you right away you shouldn’t settle in expecting a rehash of her debut’s smooth R&B. And while a remix of “Bag Lady” was its biggest single, we’ll never get over album closer “Green Eyes”, a wrenching, ravishing song suite narrating the end of a relationship.

Baduizm (Special Edition)

In 1997, as a new cadre of socially conscious, hip-hop soul songwriters was emerging from the underground, Baduizm shifted the entire R&B landscape. A 25-year-old Texan with a preternaturally cool sense of groove and a jazz twang that conjured Billie Holliday with a joint simmering between her fingers, Badu brought an approach to songwriting that simply was the sound of neo-soul. “Baduizm was designed to get you high,” she said at the time. “Baduizm is lighting my incense, lighting my candles, knowing the creator, knowing myself.”Her approach to spirituality in her music was down-to-earth—as was her style, with flowing dresses and an omnipresent head wrap. But her music was otherworldly, even as she sang conversationally about the concerns of the everywoman, whether working poverty and sociopolitical pressures or the dirty deeds of unworthy lovers. Propelled by the slow groove of her rotating backing band, including bass legend Ron Carter and a little-known Philadelphia group called The Roots, she channelled and then embodied a cultural shift towards Afrocentricism, creating a sonic throughline of Black musics like ’30s blues and ’70s jazz to soul on the precipice of a new millennium, all anchored by a deeply funky rhythm section.“Sometimes (Mix #9)” makes great use of Philly’s Gamble and Huff-style groove, while lead single “On & On” brought Blue Note Records to the era of the b-girl. One of Badu’s great feats was the way she wove her voice in and around the bass and drums like sultry tendrils of smoke, loose as a free-jazz saxophonist when she wanted to be. The cohesion and promise of Baduizm’s vision took her triple-platinum and made her a star, and hinted at her long career to come.

But You Caint Use My Phone (Mixtape)

2015

New Amerykah, Pt. 2: Return of the Ankh

2010

New Amerykah, Pt. 1 (4th World War)

2008

Worldwide Underground

2003

Mama's Gun

2000

Baduizm (Special Edition)

1997

Erykah Badu Essentials

Brilliant, defiant, and 100% unique—that's the neo-soul pioneer in a nutshell.

Erykah Badu: Influences

The neo-soul Texan mines ‘60s folk and glittering R&B.

Tempted - Single

2019

Honey (Remixes) - Single

2010

Honey (Remixes) - Single

2010

Danger - EP

2003

Didn't Cha Know - EP

2001

Bag Lady - EP

2000

Apple Tree (Vol. 1) - EP

1997

Live

1997

3:AM (feat. Erykah Badu) - Single

Rapsody

Get Live (feat. Erykah Badu) - Single

Strange Fruit Project

See Thru to U (feat. Erykah Badu) - Single

Flying Lotus

Steady, Pt. 1 (feat. Erykah Badu) - Single

Supanovaslom

Steady.Pt.2(Attack of the Youth) [feat. Erykah Badu] - Single

SupaNova Slom

The Healing

Strange Fruit Project

No. 64: Erykah Badu’s Baduizm

The influential crown jewel of the neo-soul movement.

The Roots, Erykah Badu

This song features Erykah Badu, but it helped Jill Scott blow up.

Essential Album: Baduizm

Nadeska Alexis celebrates 25 years of Erykah Badu’s iconic debut album.

Erykah Badu

Erykah Badu shares songs to help you breathe and stay centered.

2/2/21: Erykah Badu

The artist shares songs to help you breathe and stay centered.

11/3/20: Erykah Badu

The artist shares songs to help you breathe and stay centered.

The Message: Erykah Badu

Erykah Badu shares songs to help you breathe and stay centered.