Erykah Badu and Jill Scott’s Instagram Live battle got underway on Saturday (May 9) at 7 p.m. EST — but it wasn’t a battle at all.
Instead, it was more like two good friends simply playing their favorite cuts as over 700,000 people watched. Ms. Badu shared a bevy of classics — from “Appletree” and “Next Lifetime” off her 1997 seminal debut Baduizm to “Cleva” from 2000’s Mama’s Gun.
Scott, on the other hand, fired off singles such as “Can’t Wait” from 2015’s Woman and “Watching Me” from 2000’s Who Is Jill Scott?
However, the most mind-blowing moment came when both women shared their various iterations of The Roots’ “You Got Me.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jodpe_RUq9Q
Unlike the RZA versus DJ Premier and Teddy Riley versus Babyface battles, the battle between the two neo-soul goddesses wasn’t marred by technical difficulties. Rather, Scott sipped a glass of red wine while Badu played Bruce Lee film clips in the background.
Queen Latifah, Ashanti, Ludacris, E-40, Fat Joe, Virgil Abloh, Missy Elliott, Pharoahe Monch, Nas and NBA legend Isaiah Thomas were a few of the many celebrities tuning in and thanking both women for their providing a “relaxing” environment — especially during a week when Uptown Records founder Andre Harrell and Little Richard both passed away.
Badu and Scott both became trending Twitter topics on Saturday night and most fans were struck by the laid back vibe of the entire event.
Check out the reactions below.
Dope IG Live moment. Erykah in my opinion is the mother of new age Neo-soul. Jill has more range and depth as a singer. Badu is a fine singer as well, but has more diverse and abstract music. I enjoy both artists.
Exactly how I see it.
Absolute and utter fire. Two queens playing grown folk music for the soul.
Erykah came to Philly to find that sound that Jill was naturally born into. Jill Scott is absolutely captivating in her music. Verses being a carrying vibe of sounds as Badu does. I think Erykah realized that Jill is maybe one notch ahead when it comes to making true poetic Neo soul rnb. And when they revealed Jill wrote Erykahs part on the Roots.. BAM!!!!!!!!!!! PHILLY IS THE HEADQUATERS OF NEO SOUL SINGING. We are naturally raised to sing with heavy mellisima and creative vocal schemes. Also Jill has continously put out more musical work since 2000. Remember after 97 Baduizm ….Lauren Dropped Her debut in 98. 2000 came Jill and honestly I think shes held the baton ever since.
Nice recap and history lesson captain!
I used to see EryKah B a lot back in the early 2000s in Philly, when I had worked down in Center City. She had drove a gold Expedition and stayed at the Hellevue Hotel. She had walked around the city streets with her kids… just enjoying life.
So I guess you gonna skip over the fact that Erykah wrote Jill’s biggest hit huh? Long Walk which shut the battle down…
Erykah did say she was joking after Jill played it, Erykah said she wishes she had written it. A simple google search will confirm that. People will fall for anything these days, yet we have a wealth of information in our pockets all the time.
You right my bad
I would love to see this live with the roots as a backing band. Jill and Erykah go song for song on stage would be mind blowing.
welldone
Aweful audio
Why y’all acting like T-Pain and Lil Jon wasn’t doing the same thing?
Time for niggas to pretend like they listen to these two hoes for clout