Erykah discussed the collaborative process within the duo and how this lead to her experimentation into singing, “ He (Free) would mail me cassette tapes of beats and I would usually rap over them. Prior to the release of Baduizm, and her immersion into the music scene, Badu notes that a career in singing was not her intention at first, “ I was an MC first…I never really considered myself a vocalist.” She originally performed in a duo, entitled Erykah Free with her cousin Robert ‘Free’ Bradford. Washington High School with Erykah and I. Co-producer Madukwu Chinwah notes “What did was bring a lot of local producers together: Robert Bradford, better known as Free, who I already knew before the project and Ty Macklin, who’s also from the Dallas/Fort Worth area. It’s not that it hadn’t existed, it s almost like I poked a hole in the dam.” The project allowed Badu to collaborate with a wide array of talent ranging from local producers in Dallas to established musicians in Philadelphia. I wanted to just be able to create.” Baduizm is more than a contemporary take on soul it is uniquely crafted project and an example of an artist exploring her own direction without needing to fit into the current trends of popular music, “ The kind of music I wanted to put out hadn’t been in mainstream radio. I had so many different points of view that I didn’t want to just be in that group, because that label comes with a responsibility. Badu noted the constraint of being categorised within the “Neo-Soul” genre and how this was not compatible with her own artistic compass, “ I didn’t feel it was the same thing. It is an album however that cannot be categorised, made without compromise and by an artist in firm control of her artistry.
A synthesis of soul and jazz with a contemporary twist of hip-hop, Baduizm emerged as one of the first albums labeled rather simplistically as “Neo Soul”, alongside D’Angelo’s Brown Sugar on its release in 1997. It was also at the forefront of popularising a new genre to the mainstream. The record is a cultivation of wisdom expressed through lyric and song emoted by a supremely talented artist.
Erykah Badu’s debut album Baduizm is a musical gospel according to its creator, an album immersed in human experience and an expression of culture and heritage.
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