. The grooves and production on the album are bass-heavy R&B, but
's languorous, occasionally tortured vocals and delicate phrasing immediately removed her from the legion of cookie-cutter female R&B singers. A singer/songwriter responsible for all but one of the songs on
, she found a number 12 hit with her first single, "On & On," which pushed the album to number two on the charts.
Born Erica Wright in Dallas in 1971,
Badu attended a school of the arts and was working as a teacher and part-time singer in her hometown when she opened for
D'Angelo at a 1994 show.
D'Angelo's manager,
Kedar Massenburg, was impressed with the performance and hooked her up with the singer to record a cover of the
Marvin Gaye/
Tammi Terrell duet "Precious Love." He also signed
Badu to his recently formed Kedar Entertainment label, and served as producer for
Baduizm, which also starred bassist
Ron Carter and members of hip-hop avatars
the Roots on several tracks. The first single, "On & On," became a number one R&B hit in early 1997, and
Baduizm followed it to the top of the R&B album charts by March. Opening for R&B acts as well as rap's
Wu-Tang Clan,
Erykah Badu stopped just short of number one on the pop album charts in April. Her
Live album followed later in the year.
In 2000 she returned with her highly anticipated second studio album,
Mama's Gun, which was co-produced by
Badu,
James Poyser,
Bilal, and
Jay Dee and contained the hit single "Bag Lady."
Worldwide Underground, a loose affair billed as an EP despite being longer than many full-lengths, was released in 2003. Her next step, 2008's
New Amerykah, Pt. 1: 4th World War, was a heavy and abstract release featuring collaborations with the members of
Sa-Ra and
Georgia Anne Muldrow; it reached number two on the Billboard 200 and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts.
New Amerykah, Pt. 2: Return of the Ankh, looser and more playful than
Pt. 1, followed in 2010.
–
John Bush, Rovi