Baduizm

Background

At the age of 14, Erykah was free-styling for a local radio station alongside such talents as Roy Hargrove. In her youth, she had decided to change the spelling of her first name from Erica to Erykah, as she believed her original name was a "slave name." The term 'kah' signifies one's inner self. She adopted the surname of Badu because it was her favorite jazz scat sound; also, among the Akan people in Ghana, it is the term for the 10th-born child. Upon graduating from Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, Badu went on to study theater at Grambling State University, a historically black college. To concentrate on music full-time, she left the university in 1993 before graduating, and took on several minimum-wage jobs to support herself. She taught drama and dance to children at the South Dallas Cultural Center. Working and touring with her cousin, Robert "Free" Bradford, she recorded a 19-song demo, Country Cousins, which attracted the attention of Kedar Massenburg. He set Badu up to record a duet with D'Angelo, "Your Precious Love," and eventually signed her to a record deal with Universal Records.

Recording and production

Recording sessions for the album took place during January to October 1996 at Battery Studios in New York City, Sigma Sounds & Ivory Studios in Philadelphia, and Dallas Sound Lab in Dallas. Badu revealed on Twitter that her debut album, was partly influenced by Brandy's debut album, saying in a tweet, “Brandy's first album was one of my inspirations when writting Baduizm. I looove that album [...] songs i liked were "I Wanna Be Down" and "Always on My Mind"... nice."

Badu stated the album was inspired by her heritage, stating that during the recording process she was embracing her culture and African heritage, particularly head wraps and African drums. After the album was recorded and ready to be released, Badu persuaded the label to let her go back to Philadelphia in order to record "Otherside of the Game" and "Sometimes", which were originally demos from a meeting with the band The Roots, who she had met following her record deal. During the short stint in Philadelphia, Badu and The Roots came up with various songs, while "Sometimes" was originally written for Black Thought to rap on. The only songs recorded during the sessions produced in Philadelphia to appear on this album are "Otherside of the Game" and "Sometimes", while the other songs from the sessions was scrapped.

Erykah Badu provided lead & background vocals, along with keyboards, drum machine & other music programming on the album with the help of Madukwu and N'Dambi who also provided additional vocals. Bob Power & Tone The Backbone provided various instruments and helped with the album's music programming alongside Ike Lee III who provided keyboards and programming and John Meredith who handled the album's drum machine programming. Jazz legend Ron Carter supplied bass for the track "Drama". Badu enlisted producers Madukwu Chinwah, Bob Power, JaBorn Jamal, Ike Lee III, with contributions from Badu herself, Badu also enlisted Michael Gilbert, Chris Trevit, Bob Powers to engineer the project. The album was mixed by Ken "Duro" Ifill; Tim Latham; Bob Power.

Release and reception

Baduizm established Badu as a popular artist and received positive reviews from critics, who viewed the record as a return to the simplicity of early 1970s soul. Vibe magazine's Karen R. Good called the record "a conduit of awakening of something dark, familiar and long slept", while John Bush from AllMusic felt it was innovative primarily for its sound, "heavier hip-hop beats over organic, conscientious soul music". Badu's particular style of singing drew many comparisons to Billie Holiday. Entertainment Weekly said Badu echoed Holiday in "her phrasing and cadence", while Greg Kot from the Chicago Tribune commented: "Rather than merely mimicking Holiday, Badu offers a canny update of the socially conscious soul of the early '70s with her midtempo grooves and sultry, conversational vocals." In the Los Angeles Times, Robert Hilburn wrote: "Freely mixing musical eras and inspirations (Billie Holiday to Stevie Wonder, jazz to hip-hop), Badu combines supper-club sophistication with an artistic vision as unique and independent" as Prince in the 1980s. Writing for Rolling Stone, Miles Marshall Lewis stated: "Baduizm showcases the heart and soul of a bohemian B-girl who happens to have an effortless jazz swing."

At the end of 1997, Baduizm was voted the seventh best record of the year in the Pazz & Jop, an annual poll of American critics published by The Village Voice. Robert Christgau, the poll's supervisor, was less enthusiastic and dismissed the comparisons to Billie Holiday, deeming Badu "a mite too bourgie-boho" for his tastes.

After Baduizm was released, it peaked at number two on the Billboard 200 and number one on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. The album's success helped establish Badu as one of the leading artists in the burgeoning neo soul genre. Baduizm was certified three times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, Gold by the British Phonographic Industry and the Canadian Recording Industry Association.

Accolades

In 1997, Badu received six nominations and won three, Favorite Female Solo Single for "On & On", Favorite Female Solo Album for Baduizm and Best R&B/Soul or Rap Song of the Year for "On & On" at the Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards. In 1998, Badu received fourteen nominations and won eight, including Favorite R&B/Soul or Rap New Artist at the American Music Awards; Best Female R&B Vocal Performance for "On & On" and Best R&B Album for Baduizm at the Grammy Awards; Outstanding New Artist and Outstanding Female Artist at the NAACP Image Awards; Favorite Female Soul/R&B Single for "On & On", Favorite Female Soul/R&B Album for Baduizm and Favorite New R&B/Soul or Rap New Artist for "On & On" at the Soul Train Music Awards.

Baduizm is listed as one of the 261 greatest albums since punk and disco (the year 1976), in the music critic Garry Mulholland's book Fear of Music (ISBN 0-7528-6831-4). 'This record works as seduction soundtrack, Saturday night chill-out, Sunday morning church replacement. The success of Erykah Badu's masterpiece briefly threatened to inspire a new era in conscious soul. But only Lauryn Hill and D'Angelo were at her level. Baduizm stands alone, a missing link between '70s street funk, basement jazz, bohemian hip hop and the blues reinventions of Portishead."

Musicians

Production

Year-end charts

Awards

Grammy Awards