In honor of performing Baduizm in its entirety at Rock the Bells 2011, Erykah Badu recently spoke with Fuse about where she was at in her life when she recorded the album. During the interview, she noted that her African roots played a large part of shaping her debut.
“If the headwrap was my trademark, the drums, African drums, were my soundtrack. I never really thought about a lot of the things people labeled my lyrics for music as. ’94 to ’97, I was at a really interesting place in my life. I was embracing, very much, my culture, my African heritage, which is one part of me,” she said. “Africa has always been a staple in my household and in my life. The drums mean an awful lot to me. It’s just who I was at the time, and I wanted to be completely who I was when I did what I did.”
She also reflected on her most memorable songs from the recording sessions, recalling two tracks that she laid down with The Roots in the eleventh hour.
“My most memorable song is ‘Otherside of the Game.’ When I turned in that demo, ‘Otherside of the Game’ was not there, the song ‘Sometimes’ was not there. Those songs were done as a collaboration with The Roots. I met The Roots after I got my record deal. The album was ready to go, but I persuaded the label to let me just go to Philly right quick,” she said. “We came up with a lot of songs but those were the ones, ‘Otherside of the Game’ and ‘Sometimes.’ I originally wrote ‘Sometimes [Mix #9] for Black Thought to rap on, but I think he thought it was wack. So we just had to keep it going.”
RELATED: Erykah Badu Speaks On “Baduizm,” New Project With Gorillaz
Such wasted potential.
Baduism-universal acclaimed/classic
Mama’s Gum-Critacally acclaimed/near classic
New Amerykah-Universal acclaimed/near classic
New Amerykah 2-good Album
Tyrone-claissic
Love of my life-Grammy
^^
Wasted potential? lol
Favorite Song: Didn’t cha Know-Mamas Gun
@ Anon
Wasted potential?? You stupid-ass-motherfucker, I bet you just woke up and decided to say some dumb shit out of your stupid ass mouth. Do the math you fucking moron, you’re probably a Chris Brown or trey Songs groupie, you’re in the wrong lane idiot!!
wasted potential?
erykah held the game down when queens like lauryn were wastin THEIR potential.
fuck outta here man. erykah is the fucking queen. listen to her albums. that shit is more boom bap than ya shit. fuck outta here man wtf. i saw her live in london last month and she killed that shit. every note.. live.. sounded bETTER than her records… and she was rapping EAZY-E and ICE CUBE verses in between her songs.. man fuck all these hating ass young kids who dont know shit… why do u think shes being interviewed everywhere again? here? hypebeast? highsnobiety? man shes all over europe.. realy musicians get more love in europe, asia, and middle east cause they worship the real musicians out there.. and out there.. badu gotmore radio play than gaga.. get yourshit together fuck nugget
WHEN HER ALBUM WITH FLYING LOTUS COMES OUT LET’S SEE WHO’S POTENTIAL YOU’LL BE FUCKING LOOKIN DOWN ON.
I was gonna jump in and defend Ms. Badu, but the brothers above me already did a good enough job.
Damn, the 1st anonymous got owned. But yeah, Erykah’s a natural talent who’s been releasing timeless music since ’97. Wasted potential my ass.
All i know is her pussy must be insane to have rappers jumping in headfirst one after the other(Common,The D.O.C,Andre 3000,Jay Electronica)
I was thinking the same thing, bruh. She’s an amazing artist, but her pussy is like a rapper magnet, lol. No disrespect… I love Erykah.
i’d eat that pussy all day
Hell Yea lmao!