''New Amerykah Part One (4th World War)'' is the fourth
studio album
An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...
by American
R&B singer-songwriter
Erykah Badu
Erica Abi Wright (born February 26, 1971), known professionally as Erykah Badu (), is an American singer-songwriter, record producer and actress. Influenced by rhythm and blues, R&B, Soul music, soul, and hip hop, Badu rose to prominence in the ...
. It was released on February 26, 2008, by
Universal Motown
Universal Motown Records was an American record label that operated as a division of Universal Motown Republic Group. It was the contemporary incarnation of the legendary Motown Records label, and the "urban" half of UMG, although there were some ...
following Badu's hiatus from recording music due to writer's block. In returning from the hiatus, she received music from several
hip hop producers over the
Internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
and recorded demos of her vocals using the
GarageBand
GarageBand is a line of digital audio workstations developed by Apple Inc. for macOS, iPadOS, and iOS devices that allows users to create music or podcasts. GarageBand is developed by Apple for macOS, and was once part of the iLife software s ...
software on her laptop. Most of the album was then recorded at
Electric Lady Studios
Electric Lady Studios is a recording studio in Greenwich Village, New York City. It was commissioned by rock musician Jimi Hendrix in 1968 and designed by architect John Storyk and audio engineer Eddie Kramer by 1970. Hendrix spent only ten ...
in New York City.
''New Amerykah Part One'' is an
esoteric
Western esotericism, also known as esotericism, esoterism, and sometimes the Western mystery tradition, is a term scholars use to categorise a wide range of loosely related ideas and movements that developed within Western society. These ideas a ...
concept album titled as a pun on Badu's first name and a reflection of the record's political leanings. It features social commentary and themes related to the plight of the
African-American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...
community, including poverty, urban violence, complacency, and cultural identity. The record's densely produced music incorporates
hip hop,
soul
In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being".
Etymology
The Modern English noun ''soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest attes ...
,
funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...
,
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
, and
electronica
Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that started in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mostly used to r ...
styles.
The album debuted at number two on the
''Billboard'' 200 chart, eventually selling 359,000 copies in the United States by December 2009. Two singles were released in support of the album—"
Honey
Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of plants (primar ...
" and "
Soldier
A soldier is a person who is a member of an army. A soldier can be a conscripted or volunteer enlisted person, a non-commissioned officer, or an officer.
Etymology
The word ''soldier'' derives from the Middle English word , from Old French ...
"—and Badu performed its music on her
Vortex World Tour. Critically, ''New Amerykah Part One'' was a widespread success, being named by many critics as one of 2008's best records. In 2019, it was voted the 92nd best album of the 21st century in a poll of music journalists published by ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
''.
Background
![Questlove](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f6/Questlove.jpg)
Dealing with
writer's block
Writer's block is a condition, primarily associated with writing, in which an author is either unable to produce new work or experiences a creative slowdown. Mike Rose found that this creative stall is not a result of commitment problems or th ...
and conflicted about her mainstream success, Erykah Badu embarked on her
Frustrated Artist Tour in 2003.
Her increasing popularity brought upon some backlash towards her public image and expectations of her as "queen of
neo soul
Neo soul (sometimes called progressive soul) is a genre of popular music. As a term, it was coined by music industry entrepreneur Kedar Massenburg during the late 1990s to market and describe a style of music that emerged from soul and contempo ...
", an
honorific nickname that she found limiting.
Her third studio album, ''
Worldwide Underground
''Worldwide Underground'' is the third studio album by American singer Erykah Badu, released September 16, 2003, by Motown Records. Recording sessions for the album took place during 2003, following Badu's period of writer's block, and her perfor ...
'' (2003), was released to mostly positive reviews and was certified
gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...
, although it was underpromoted and sold less than her previous albums.
Badu herself was not satisfied with the album and felt she had nothing substantial to express with her music at the time.
She took time off from her recording career to deal with her creative block and focus on caring for her children,
although she continued to tour in the period between albums.
In 2004, Badu gave birth to a daughter, Puma Rose, with her former boyfriend, rapper
The D.O.C.
Tracy Lynn Curry (born June 10, 1968), better known as The D.O.C., is an American rapper, songwriter, and record producer. In addition to a solo career, he was a member of the Southern hip hop group Fila Fresh Crew and later collaborated with gan ...
Later that year, she received her first computer as a Christmas gift from drummer and producer
Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson
Ahmir Khalib Thompson (born January 20, 1971), known professionally as Questlove (stylized as ), is an American musician, record producer, disc jockey, filmmaker, music journalist, and actor. He is the drummer and joint frontman (with Black Thou ...
, and began communicating with and receiving music from him and other producers such as
Q-Tip and
J Dilla
J, or j, is the tenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its usual name in English is ''jay'' (pronounced ), with a now-uncommon varia ...
.
Beginning in 2005,
Badu worked from her home in Dallas and used the software application
GarageBand
GarageBand is a line of digital audio workstations developed by Apple Inc. for macOS, iPadOS, and iOS devices that allows users to create music or podcasts. GarageBand is developed by Apple for macOS, and was once part of the iLife software s ...
as a
digital audio workstation
A digital audio workstation (DAW) is an electronic device or application software used for Sound recording and reproduction, recording, editing and producing audio files. DAWs come in a wide variety of configurations from a single software pro ...
,
which she was introduced to by her son,
Seven. He taught her how to use her laptop as a mini recording studio,
and she used it to construct various
backing track
A backing track is an audio recording on audiotape, CD or a digital recording medium or a MIDI recording of synthesized instruments, sometimes of purely rhythmic accompaniment, often of a rhythm section or other accompaniment parts that live music ...
s for songs.
Using GarageBand, she recorded demos of her vocals by singing into the computer's microphone.
Badu composed more than 75 songs within the year and intended on splitting them among her planned series of ''New Amerykah'' albums.
She said of her productivity with her laptop, "I could be here, in my own space, with headphones on, and the kids could be doing what they doing, and I’m cooking dinner still, I’m making juices still, and it’s so easy just to sing. You got an idea — boom! Idea, boom!"
Badu's
iChat
iChat (previously iChat AV) is a discontinued instant messaging software application developed by Apple Inc. for use on its Mac OS X operating system. It supported instant text messaging over XMPP/Jingle or OSCAR ( AIM) protocol, audio and video ...
contacts,
including hip hop producers Questlove,
Madlib
Otis Jackson Jr. (born October 24, 1973), known professionally as Madlib, is an American DJ, music producer, multi-instrumentalist, and rapper. He is widely known for his collaborations with MF DOOM (as Madvillain), J Dilla (as Jaylib), and Fr ...
,
9th Wonder
Patrick Denard Douthit (born January 15, 1975),
better known as 9th Wonder, is a J Dilla
J, or j, is the tenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its usual name in English is ''jay'' (pronounced ), with a now-uncommon varia ...
,
instant message
Instant messaging (IM) technology is a type of online chat allowing real-time text transmission over the Internet or another computer network. Messages are typically transmitted between two or more parties, when each user inputs text and trigge ...
d her to get back into the studio and sent her tracks.
Such exchanges inspired a creative spark for Badu, who explained in an interview for the ''
Dallas Observer
''Dallas Observer'' is a free digital and print publication based in Dallas, Texas. The ''Observer'' publishes daily online coverage of local news, restaurants, music, and arts, as well as longform narrative journalism. A weekly print issue circ ...
'', "I started to accept that maybe it's OK for me to put out music, and it doesn't have to be something dynamic or world-changing. But just as I was accepting that, here comes this burst of light and energy and creativity. And that's the process, I guess, of life—the detachment and the release of something gives you even more room to grow or be creative."
With the album, Badu sought to augment her music's production, expose the work of
underground
Underground most commonly refers to:
* Subterranea (geography), the regions beneath the surface of the Earth
Underground may also refer to:
Places
* The Underground (Boston), a music club in the Allston neighborhood of Boston
* The Underground (S ...
hip hop producers, and exceed listeners' expectations of contemporary music.
She explained to ''
Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...
'' that "in taking on a project like this, I'm taking the responsibility to talk for my race and my planet."
In an interview for the ''
New York Post
The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com.
It was established ...
'', she explained the album to be about "the war against self ... against your inner being", and said of her hiatus, "I've always taken my time between albums. I'm a performing artist - recording is secondary to me. My performances are what drive me. It's like my therapy. I like to write a lot while I'm on the road before I even think about recording."
Badu also said that she now had a relevant message to express for listeners and was no longer struggling with a creative block.
Recording
![Karriem Riggins](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/02/Karriem_Riggins.jpg)
For ''New Amerykah Part One'', Badu collaborated principally with Questlove, Madlib, 9th Wonder,
Karriem Riggins
Karriem Riggins is an American jazz drummer, hip hop producer, DJ and songwriter.
Biography
Riggins was born in Detroit, Michigan, United States, son of keyboardist Emmanuel Riggins. As a child, he would often watch his father perform with G ...
,
James Poyser
James Jason Poyser is an American songwriter, record producer, musician and current member of the hip hop band The Roots.
Poyser has written and produced songs for various legendary and award-winning artists such as Erykah Badu, Mariah Carey, ...
, audio engineer Mike "Chav" Chavarria, and the members of musical group
Sa-Ra
Sa-Ra is an American musical group based in Los Angeles, California, also known by its full name, The Sa-Ra Creative Partners. The group is composed of Om'Mas Keith, Taz Arnold, and Shafiq Husayn. The name translates roughly to "the children of G ...
, who made production and lyrical contributions to most of the tracks.
She later explained choosing which producers to work with, saying "All of these people have a reputation for being visionaries and knowing them well, I felt 'Okay, now it's time to put together a project that not only takes us to another place, another dimension, but highlights these sights.' And that's what I had in mind for this project".
Badu began recording ''New Amerykah Part One'' at Luminous Sound Recording in Dallas, where she was assisted by Chavarria in recording vocals and basic tracks to
2-tracks.
Her vocal harmonies were recorded to a
Studer
Studer is a designer and manufacturer of professional audio equipment for recording studios and broadcasters. The company was founded in Zürich, Switzerland, in 1948 by Willi Studer. It initially became known in the 1950s for its professiona ...
A820 ½-inch, an Analog Playback Tape machine, using
RMG magnetic tape
Magnetic tape is a medium for magnetic storage made of a thin, magnetizable coating on a long, narrow strip of plastic film. It was developed in Germany in 1928, based on the earlier magnetic wire recording from Denmark. Devices that use magne ...
.
Poyser, who was heavily involved as musician and producer in all of Badu's previous work, had his role on the album reduced amicably to accommodate her minimalist,
beat
Beat, beats or beating may refer to:
Common uses
* Patrol, or beat, a group of personnel assigned to monitor a specific area
** Beat (police), the territory that a police officer patrols
** Gay beat, an area frequented by gay men
* Battery ( ...
-driven approach in production. "She wanted a dirtier, more organic underground hip hop sound", Poyser later said to ''
Shook
Shook may refer to:
People with the surname
* Al Shook (1899–1984), American football player
* Barbara Ingalls Shook (1938-2008), American philanthropist
* Edwin M. Shook (1911-2000) Maya archaeologist
* Fred Shook (1919-1992), American footbal ...
'' magazine. "So she dealt with cats that brought that sound to the table."
Additional recording sessions and
programming took place at Sa-Ra's Cosmic Dust Studio. Sa-Ra member Om'mas Keith remarked on Badu's role at their studio, "Sometimes she’d come through and pick a skeletal and other times the beats would get made right then and there." Keith played instruments such as the
Fender Rhodes
The Rhodes piano (also known as the Fender Rhodes piano) is an electric piano invented by Harold Rhodes, which became popular in the 1970s. Like a conventional piano, the Rhodes generates sound with keys and hammers, but instead of strings, th ...
,
Roland Juno-106
The Roland Juno-106 is a synthesizer released by Roland Corporation in February 1984.
Features
The Juno-106 is a polyphonic synthesizer with six voices. It is an analog synthesizer but with digitally controlled oscillators and chorus effects ...
, and
Roland SH-101
The Roland SH-101 is an analog synthesizer manufactured by the Roland Corporation between 1982 and 1986. Though it was something of a commercial failure during the time of its manufacture, it later became a staple of electronic music in the 1990s ...
.
Of all her collaborators, Badu only let Husayn write lyrics for her on the album. Husayn said that because Badu had not allowed anyone to do this before, "she had to go through some personal things to come to the point where she'd let somebody write for her in the manner that we did. It was spontaneous but at the same time there was structure to it. It might not have the right expression, or the right enunciation. Writing is so personal. That was a big thing."
Electric Lady sessions
Badu subsequently held recording sessions at
Electric Lady Studios
Electric Lady Studios is a recording studio in Greenwich Village, New York City. It was commissioned by rock musician Jimi Hendrix in 1968 and designed by architect John Storyk and audio engineer Eddie Kramer by 1970. Hendrix spent only ten ...
in New York City, where the album was completed.
"Everything that the producers e-mailed me I put into GarageBand", she explained to ''
Remix
A remix (or reorchestration) is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, video, poem, or photograph can all be remixes. The o ...
''. "Then we would try to duplicate it at Electric Lady. I did vocals on my laptop, babies crying and everything. I also
EQ'd the tracks using effects like GarageBand's Vocal Reflection."
Badu worked with audio engineers Chris Bell, Tom Soares, and Chavarria. The latter had spent numerous hours with Badu listening to her previous albums, including her 1997 debut ''
Baduizm
''Baduizm'' is the debut studio album by American singer-songwriter Erykah Badu. It was released on February 11, 1997, by Kedar Records and Universal Records. After leaving university in order to concentrate on music full-time, Badu then began ...
'' and its 2000 follow-up ''
Mama's Gun
''Mama's Gun'' is the second studio album by American singer Erykah Badu. It was recorded between 1999 and 2000 at Electric Lady Studios in New York and released on November 21, 2000, by Motown Records. A neo soul album, ''Mama's Gun'' incorporat ...
'', as well as older albums such as ''
The Dark Side of the Moon
''The Dark Side of the Moon'' is the eighth studio album by the English rock band Pink Floyd, released on 1 March 1973 by Harvest Records. The album was primarily developed during live performances, and the band premiered an early version of ...
'' (1973) by progressive rock band
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd are an English rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experimentation, philo ...
and ''
Innervisions
''Innervisions'' is the sixteenth studio album by American singer, songwriter, and musician Stevie Wonder, released on August 3, 1973, by Tamla, a subsidiary of Motown Records. A landmark recording of Wonder's "classic period", the album has bee ...
'' (1973) by
Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris ( Judkins; May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, who is credited as a pioneer and influence by musicians across a range of genres that include rhythm and blues, Pop musi ...
.
They worked with the producers' emailed music and embellished their own 2-tracks by using
Pro Tools
Pro Tools is a digital audio workstation (DAW) developed and released by Avid Technology (formerly Digidesign) for Microsoft Windows and macOS. It is used for music creation and production, sound for picture (sound design, audio post-productio ...
to incorporate live instrumentation such as bass, guitar, flutes, percussion, and keyboards.
Contributing musicians included vocalist
Georgia Anne Muldrow
Georgia Anne Muldrow (born 1983) is an American musician from Los Angeles, California. In 2008, she co-founded the SomeOthaShip Connect record label with fellow artist and former husband Dudley Perkins.
Life and career
Georgia Anne Muldrow grew ...
, trumpeter
Roy Hargrove
Roy Anthony Hargrove (October 16, 1969 – November 2, 2018) was an American jazz musician and composer whose principal instruments were the trumpet and flugelhorn. He achieved worldwide acclaim after winning two Grammy Awards for differing styles ...
,
vibraphonist
Roy Ayers
Roy Ayers (born September 10, 1940) is an American funk, soul, and jazz composer, vibraphone player, and music producer. Ayers began his career as a post-bop jazz artist, releasing several albums with Atlantic Records, before his tenure at Pol ...
, guitarist
Omar Rodríguez-López
Omar Alfredo Rodríguez-López (born September 1, 1975) is an American guitarist and songwriter. He has formed or played in several bands, including the Mars Volta, At the Drive-In, Antemasque, and Bosnian Rainbows. He was the bassist for the ...
,
and vocalist
Bilal __NOTOC__
Bilal may refer to:
People
* Bilal (name) (a list of people with the name)
* Bilal ibn Rabah, a companion of Muhammad
* Bilal (American singer)
* Bilal (Lebanese singer)
Places
*Bilal Colony, a neighbourhood of Korangi Town in Karachi, ...
.
Inspired by Badu's creativity and their time listening to music, Chavarria added special effects and
delay
Delay (from Latin: dilatio) may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ''Delay 1968'', a 1981 album by German experimental rock band Can
* ''The Delay'', a 2012 Uruguayan film
People
* B. H. DeLay (1891–1923), American aviator and acto ...
s to the tracks by using and manipulating a variety of
plug-ins and
guitar pedal
An effects unit or effects pedal is an electronic device that alters the sound of a musical instrument or other audio source through audio signal processing.
Common effects include distortion/overdrive, often used with electric guitar in ele ...
s, subsequently reworking effects frequency and
modulation
In electronics and telecommunications, modulation is the process of varying one or more properties of a periodic waveform, called the ''carrier signal'', with a separate signal called the ''modulation signal'' that typically contains informatio ...
parameters.
Chavarria said they were able to expand on the producers' tracks rather than change them, because "Erykah made this record to display to the world that there is this whole group of producers out there who are outside of the mainstream making great music."
Badu said of the approach, "I work in layers. The first layer is the track. The second layer is the songs. The third would be the musicians who add a certain nuance. And when they play, they play like they are a sample. Or we take a piece of what they played, and we sample and
loop
Loop or LOOP may refer to:
Brands and enterprises
* Loop (mobile), a Bulgarian virtual network operator and co-founder of Loop Live
* Loop, clothing, a company founded by Carlos Vasquez in the 1990s and worn by Digable Planets
* Loop Mobile, an ...
it."
Along with a
talking drum
The talking drum is an hourglass-shaped drum from West Africa, whose pitch can be regulated to mimic the tone and prosody of human speech. It has two drumheads connected by leather tension cords, which allow the player to change the pitc ...
, Badu used
tuning fork
A tuning fork is an acoustic resonator in the form of a two-pronged fork with the prongs (tines) formed from a U-shaped bar of elastic metal (usually steel). It resonates at a specific constant pitch when set vibrating by striking it against ...
s when recording ''New Amerykah Part One'' to evoke a certain feeling through its frequency, a practice she had done on her previous albums: "Each tuning fork has a certain vibrational energy that is conducive to a feeling or a color or a smell. They're related to different
chakra
Chakras (, ; sa , text=चक्र , translit=cakra , translit-std=IAST , lit=wheel, circle; pi, cakka) are various focal points used in a variety of ancient meditation practices, collectively denominated as Tantra, or the esoteric or ...
s in the body, too. Some may make you feel good or sexy or conscious of what you're saying."
The album was
mastered
Mastering, a form of audio post production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device (the master), the source from which all copies will be produced (via meth ...
at Electric Lady Studios in February 2008.
Before it was edited down to 11 tracks, ''New Amerykah Part One'' was originally intended as a double album, with 18 songs over two discs.
Vocal production
At Electric Lady, Badu applied a multifaceted approach to recording her vocals and opted against editing them in post-production.
Using her voice
impressionistically,
her vocals were characterized by high
scales
Scale or scales may refer to:
Mathematics
* Scale (descriptive set theory), an object defined on a set of points
* Scale (ratio), the ratio of a linear dimension of a model to the corresponding dimension of the original
* Scale factor, a number w ...
, varied frequencies, wide
intervals
Interval may refer to:
Mathematics and physics
* Interval (mathematics), a range of numbers
** Partially ordered set#Intervals, its generalization from numbers to arbitrary partially ordered sets
* A statistical level of measurement
* Interval est ...
, and time-stretched harmonies.
Chavarria, who engineered the vocals with Badu, remarked on her singing, "Her voice has so many frequencies, from a subharmonic of her tonic to a thin raspiness, and she wants to hear all of that."
Badu used a
Shure SM57
The Shure SM57 is a low- impedance cardioid dynamic microphone made by Shure Incorporated and commonly used in live sound reinforcement and studio recording. It is one of the best-selling microphones in the world. It is used extensively in amplif ...
dynamic microphone
A microphone, colloquially called a mic or mike (), is a transducer that converts sound into an electrical signal. Microphones are used in many applications such as telephones, hearing aids, public address systems for concert halls and public ...
, finding it to have enough
bottom
Bottom may refer to:
Anatomy and sex
* Bottom (BDSM), the partner in a BDSM who takes the passive, receiving, or obedient role, to that of the top or dominant
* Bottom (sex), a term used by gay couples and BDSM
* Buttocks or bottom, part of th ...
for her voice type, and cut vocal takes while situated between two speakers in the studio's control room with the
monitor mix playing.
She explained this setting to be more comfortable, noting the ability to hear herself sing and hold the microphone when moving around. Badu preferred to sing in one take rather than edit different takes together: "When I do vocals, I am singing with a certain volume in my voice. I am singing the double and triple harmonies at different volumes. You don't have to adjust it; I have already done it. We
mix
Mix, mixes or mixing may refer to:
Persons & places
* Mix (surname)
** Tom Mix (1880-1940), American film star
* nickname of Mix Diskerud (born Mikkel, 1990), Norwegian-American soccer player
* Mix camp, an informal settlement in Namibia
* Mix ...
as we go, so by the time we put the vocals to ½-inch tape, I know it. If you touch a damn thing, I will know it."
To adjust to potential
audio feedback
Audio feedback (also known as acoustic feedback, simply as feedback) is a positive feedback situation which may occur when an acoustic path exists between an audio input (for example, a microphone or guitar pickup) and an audio output (for examp ...
and
leakage and obtain a usable take, Chavarria tried having Badu sit in an overstuffed chair six feet behind the
mixing console
A mixing console or mixing desk is an electronic device for mixing audio signals, used in sound recording and reproduction and sound reinforcement systems. Inputs to the console include microphones, signals from electric or electronic inst ...
and use alternate microphones such as a
Neumann
Neumann is German language, German and Yiddish language, Yiddish for "new man", and one of the List of the most common surnames in Europe#Germany, 20 most common German surnames.
People
* Von Neumann family, a Jewish Hungarian noble family
A ...
M 269 or AEA R44
ribbon microphone
A ribbon microphone, also known as a ribbon velocity microphone, is a type of microphone that uses a thin aluminum, duraluminum or nanofilm of electrically conductive ribbon placed between the poles of a magnet to produce a voltage by electromag ...
with Sony MDR-V900 headphones into a Furman headphone mixer.
However, Badu felt she could not perceive all of her voice's frequencies with the headphones and often discarded them to move towards the
studio monitor
Studio monitors are loudspeakers in speaker enclosures specifically designed for professional audio production applications, such as recording studios, filmmaking, television studios, radio studios and project or home studios, where accurate ...
s.
He also considered situating her in an equilateral triangle with the two speakers, one of which would be placed out of
phase
Phase or phases may refer to:
Science
*State of matter, or phase, one of the distinct forms in which matter can exist
*Phase (matter), a region of space throughout which all physical properties are essentially uniform
* Phase space, a mathematic ...
in order to have the leakage cancel itself. However, according to him, the mic has to be stationary, while Badu "likes to hold the mic like an MC. She is at home as a live performer."
He said of working around audio spills and adapting to Badu's methods, "We worked to make her vocals fit into the track,
phase
Phase or phases may refer to:
Science
*State of matter, or phase, one of the distinct forms in which matter can exist
*Phase (matter), a region of space throughout which all physical properties are essentially uniform
* Phase space, a mathematic ...
-wise ... What did work was to keep the monitors fairly low and turn the microphone out of phase, and we would move her around the room until she found a spot where the leakage was reasonable and where she felt comfortable and could hear herself. But just as often she would just sit in that chair behind the board in the A Room."
Musical style
![Miles Davis-140916-0016-103WP (cropped)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/72/Miles_Davis-140916-0016-103WP_%28cropped%29.jpg)
The album's music is a dense,
stylistic amalgam that primarily incorporates
funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...
,
soul
In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being".
Etymology
The Modern English noun ''soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest attes ...
, and
hip hop genres,
as well as
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
and
electronica
Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that started in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mostly used to r ...
.
''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'' called it "a politically charged neo-soul suite with cutting-edge production", while ''
The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
'' critic Andy Gill deemed it a work of
psychedelic soul
Psychedelic soul (originally called black rock or conflated with psychedelic funk) is a music genre that emerged in the late 1960s and saw Black soul musicians embrace elements of psychedelic rock, including its production techniques, instrumenta ...
.
Nelson George
Nelson George (born September 1, 1957) is an American author, columnist, music and culture critic, journalist, and filmmaker. He has been nominated twice for the National Book Critics Circle Award.
Biography
George attended St. John's Universit ...
described the record as "a complicated mesh of soul,
electro sounds and references, simple and obscure ... a musically challenging album that owes much to
Radiohead
Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); brothers Jonny Greenwood (lead guitar, keyboards, other instruments) and Colin Greenwood (bass) ...
and
Curtis Mayfield
Curtis Lee Mayfield (June 3, 1942 – December 26, 1999) was an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer, and one of the most influential musicians behind soul and politically conscious African-American music. ".
Expanding of the loose,
jam
Jam is a type of fruit preserve.
Jam or Jammed may also refer to:
Other common meanings
* A firearm malfunction
* Block signals
** Radio jamming
** Radar jamming and deception
** Mobile phone jammer
** Echolocation jamming
Arts and entertai ...
-oriented style of ''Worldwide Underground'',
it features
groove
Groove or Grooves may refer to:
Music
* Groove (music)
* Groove (drumming)
* The Groove (band), an Australian rock/pop band of the 1960s
* The Groove (Sirius XM), a US radio station
* Groove 101.7FM, a former Perth, Australia, radio station
* ...
-based instrumentation, murky tones,
hip hop
musical phrasing
Musical phrasing is the method by which a musician shapes a sequence of notes in a passage of music to allow expression, much like when speaking English a phrase may be written identically but may be spoken differently, and is named for the in ...
, eccentric interludes,
and various beats, digital
glitches
A glitch is a short-lived fault in a system, such as a transient fault that corrects itself, making it difficult to troubleshoot. The term is particularly common in the computing and electronics industries, in circuit bending, as well as among ...
, and
samples.
Sputnikmusic
Sputnikmusic is an American music community website offering music criticism and music news alongside features commonly associated with wiki-style websites. The format of the website is unusual in that it includes both professional and amateur c ...
's Nick Butler said the album "moved beyond the ideas and conventions that have defined neo-soul over the past decade."
Greg Kot
Greg Kot (born March 3, 1957) is an American music journalist and author. From 1990 until 2020, Kot was the rock music critic at the ''Chicago Tribune'', where he covered popular music and reported on music-related social, political and busines ...
wrote that, "Like her peers
D'Angelo
Michael Eugene Archer (born February 11, 1974), better known by his stage name D'Angelo (), is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer. He first garnered attention after co-producing the single "U Will Know" ...
(with ''
Voodoo
Voodoo may refer to:
Religions
* African or West African Vodun, practiced by Gbe-speaking ethnic groups
* African diaspora religions, a list of related religions sometimes called Vodou/Voodoo
** Candomblé Jejé, also known as Brazilian Vodu ...
'' in 2000),
Common
Common may refer to:
Places
* Common, a townland in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland
* Boston Common, a central public park in Boston, Massachusetts
* Cambridge Common, common land area in Cambridge, Massachusetts
* Clapham Common, originally com ...
(''
Electric Circus
''Electric Circus '' (also known as ''EC'') was a Canadian live dance music television program that aired on MuchMusic and Citytv from September 16, 1988 to December 12, 2003. The name originated from a nightclub that once existed at Citytv's fir ...
'' in 2002) and
the Roots
The Roots are an American hip hop band formed in 1987 by Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter and Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The Roots serve as the house band on NBC's ''The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy F ...
(''
Phrenology
Phrenology () is a pseudoscience which involves the measurement of bumps on the skull to predict mental traits.Wihe, J. V. (2002). "Science and Pseudoscience: A Primer in Critical Thinking." In ''Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience'', pp. 195–203. C ...
'' in 2002), Badu has made a record that defies efforts to categorize it."
He remarked that its "murkier, funkier vibe" draws on the "hypnotic funk" of early 1970s albums such as
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of music ...
's ''
On the Corner
''On the Corner'' is a studio album by American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer Miles Davis. It was recorded in June and July 1972 and released on October 11 of the same year by Columbia Records. The album continued Davis's exploration o ...
'' (1972),
Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey Hancock (born April 12, 1940) is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, and composer. Hancock started his career with trumpeter Donald Byrd's group. He shortly thereafter joined the Miles Davis Quintet, where he help ...
's ''
Sextant
A sextant is a doubly reflecting navigation instrument that measures the angular distance between two visible objects. The primary use of a sextant is to measure the angle between an astronomical object and the horizon for the purposes of celes ...
'' (1973), and
Sly & the Family Stone
Sly and the Family Stone was an American band from San Francisco. Active from 1966 to 1983, it was pivotal in the development of funk, soul, rock, and psychedelic music. Its core line-up was led by singer-songwriter, record producer, and multi-i ...
's ''
There's a Riot Goin' On
''There's a Riot Goin' On'' (sometimes referred to as ''Riot'') is the fifth studio album by American funk and soul band Sly and the Family Stone. It was recorded from 1970 to 1971 at Record Plant Studios in Sausalito, California and released lat ...
'' (1971).
Other critics also drew comparisons to ''Voodoo'' and ''On the Corner'', citing ''New Amerykah''s unhurried feel and preference for "sound and mood over choruses and verses".
Similar to ''Voodoo'' and ''On the Corner'', ''New Amerykah Part One'' emphasizes sound and mood over choruses and verses.
The album is unified by a musical theme, with songs sequenced together and typified by ominous musical elements,
minor-key
In music theory, the key of a piece is the group of pitches, or scale, that forms the basis of a musical composition in classical, Western art, and Western pop music.
The group features a '' tonic note'' and its corresponding ''chords'', al ...
melodies, and atmospheric beats.
Songs on the album also incorporate
experimental hip hop
Progressive rap (or progressive hip hop) is a broad subgenre of hip hop music that aims to progress the genre thematically with socially transformative ideas and musically with stylistic experimentation. Developing through the works of innovati ...
backing tracks and other hip hop elements in a surrealistic manner.
The majority of the beats are dark, blunted, and hazy, and have been noted by music writers as conveying an urban
soundscape
A soundscape is the acoustic environment as perceived by humans, in context. The term was originally coined by Michael Southworth, and popularised by R. Murray Schafer. There is a varied history of the use of soundscape depending on discipline, r ...
and feeling of paranoia.
Lauren Carter of the ''
Boston Herald
The ''Boston Herald'' is an American daily newspaper whose primary market is Boston, Massachusetts, and its surrounding area. It was founded in 1846 and is one of the oldest daily newspapers in the United States. It has been awarded eight Pulit ...
'' said the songs often have "the feel of a
seance".
Most of them were either produced or co-written by members of Sa-Ra, who were known for their sonically
dissonant
In music, consonance and dissonance are categorizations of simultaneous or successive Sound, sounds. Within the Western tradition, some listeners associate consonance with sweetness, pleasantness, and acceptability, and dissonance with harshness ...
music, characterized by eccentric
chord placements and off-time beats.
Sasha Frere-Jones
Alexander Roger Wallace "Sasha" Frere-Jones (né Jones; born 1967) is an American writer, music critic, and musician. He has written for ''Pretty Decorating'', '' ego trip'', ''Hit It And Quit It'', ''Mean'', ''Slant'', ''The New York Post'', ''T ...
believed the record "isn't so much hip-hop as it is a reorganization of the historical
flotsam and jetsam
In maritime law, flotsam'','' jetsam'','' lagan'','' and derelict are specific kinds of shipwreck. The words have specific nautical meanings, with legal consequences in the law of admiralty and marine salvage. A shipwreck is defined as the r ...
that were recycled and turned into hip-hop."
Lyrics and themes
![BrokenPromises JohnFekner](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a2/BrokenPromises_JohnFekner.jpg)
Lyrically, ''New Amerykah Part One'' is an
esoteric
Western esotericism, also known as esotericism, esoterism, and sometimes the Western mystery tradition, is a term scholars use to categorise a wide range of loosely related ideas and movements that developed within Western society. These ideas a ...
concept album with sociopolitical themes and mostly downbeat subject matter.
It features more impersonal topics and social commentary than on Badu's previous work.
Its subject matter deals with social concerns and struggles within the African-American community, exploring topics such as
institutional racism
Institutional racism, also known as systemic racism, is a form of racism that is embedded in the laws and regulations of a society or an organization. It manifests as discrimination in areas such as criminal justice, employment, housing, health ...
, religion, poverty, urban violence, the abuse of power, complacency, drug addiction, and
nihilism
Nihilism (; ) is a philosophy, or family of views within philosophy, that rejects generally accepted or fundamental aspects of human existence, such as objective truth, knowledge, morality, values, or meaning. The term was popularized by Ivan ...
.
Badu said she wrote about "poor families, the undermining of the working class, the so-called minority."
According to ''
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
'' critic Nitsuh Abebe, the record's main theme is the struggle for African Americans to determine their
cultural identity
Cultural identity is a part of a person's identity, or their self-conception and self-perception, and is related to nationality, ethnicity, religion, social class, generation, locality or any kind of social group that has its own distinct cultur ...
in light of the "
Civil Rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life of ...
and
post-Civil Rights" era.
In Ratliff's opinion, the album's subject matter has been explored before by Mayfield,
Marvin Gaye
Marvin Pentz Gay Jr., who also spelled his surname as Gaye (April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984), was an American singer and songwriter. He helped to shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player and later as a solo ar ...
, and
Funkadelic
Funkadelic was an American funk rock band formed in Plainfield, New Jersey in 1968 and active until 1982. The band and its sister act Parliament, both led by George Clinton, pioneered the funk music culture of the 1970s.John, Bush. Funkadeli ...
, which "suggests that little has changed in nearly 40 years, and perhaps ... that's her point."
Quentin B. Huff from ''
PopMatters
''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, fi ...
'' believed that like
Suzanne Vega
Suzanne Nadine Vega ( Peck; born July 11, 1959) is an American singer-songwriter best known for her folk-inspired music. Vega's music career spans almost 40 years. She came to prominence in the mid-1980s, releasing four singles that entered the ...
's 2007 album ''
Beauty & Crime
''Beauty & Crime'' is the seventh studio album by singer-songwriter Suzanne Vega. It is her first album of new material since 2001's ''Songs in Red and Gray'' and her first for Blue Note Records. It was released on July 17, 2007. ''Beauty & Cri ...
'', ''New Amerykah Part One'' also incorporated "a
post-9/11
The post-9/11 period is the time after the September 11 attacks, characterized by heightened suspicion of non-Americans in the United States, increased government efforts to address terrorism, and a more aggressive American foreign policy.
Pol ...
worldview, plus a few shots of community spirit, individual growth, pleas for social activism and spiritual enlightenment, and ... the realities of death."
He felt that like the "clash in musical styles", some songs "seem committed to having America honor" the promise of the
American Dream for African-Americans, while other songs "seem to reject the promise, or at least the idea that the promise can be fulfilled without considerable effort".
Badu's songwriting is characterized by
pointillism
Pointillism (, ) is a technique of painting in which small, distinct dots of color are applied in patterns to form an image.
Georges Seurat and Paul Signac developed the technique in 1886, branching from Impressionism. The term "Pointillism" wa ...
,
stream of consciousness
In literary criticism, stream of consciousness is a narrative mode or method that attempts "to depict the multitudinous thoughts and feelings which pass through the mind" of a narrator. The term was coined by Daniel Oliver (physician), Daniel Ol ...
, and scenic narrative.
Her lyrics are alternately overtly political and deeply personal,
interlaced with
Five Percenter
The Five-Percent Nation, sometimes referred to as the Nation of Gods and Earths (NGE/NOGE) or the Five Percenters, is a Black nationalist movement influenced by Islam that was founded in 1964 in the Harlem section of the borough of Manhattan, ...
notions and references to the
Nation of Islam
The Nation of Islam (NOI) is a religious and political organization founded in the United States by Wallace Fard Muhammad in 1930.
A black nationalist organization, the NOI focuses its attention on the African diaspora, especially on African ...
.
Badu expresses a motherly perspective and feelings of dismay and empathy for the subjects in the songs.
Charles Aaron
Charles Aaron is an American music journalist and editor, formerly for '' Spin'' magazine, where he worked for 23 years.
Personal
Charles Aaron was born in Rockingham, North Carolina, and raised in Asheboro, North Carolina and Rome, Georgia. He ...
commented that "a sense of history and maternal compassion ... grounds even her most oblique forays."
Abebe wrote similarly, "her keen writing about people" gives songs "much of their shape" and views that her candor helps communicate the album's "social concerns, which could otherwise sound like a laundry list of black-community struggles".
Songs
The opening track "Amerykahn Promise" samples the 1977 song "The American Promise" by American band
RAMP
An inclined plane, also known as a ramp, is a flat supporting surface tilted at an angle from the vertical direction, with one end higher than the other, used as an aid for raising or lowering a load. The inclined plane is one of the six clas ...
as its backing track. The original song was co-written and produced by Roy Ayers, who gave Badu the original master tape for her to rework on her album.
Ayers and
Edwin Birdsong
Edwin L. Birdsong (August 22, 1941 – January 21, 2019) was an American keyboardist and organist, known in the 1970s and 1980s for his experimental funk/ disco music. Birdsong did not achieve much chart success, but developed a strong fan bas ...
were inspired to write the song by President
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice ...
's 1965 speech "The American Promise", which called for justice and equal rights in the United States. "Amerykahn Promise" features explicit political satire,
with themes of disfranchisement and the hindrance of the
American Dream.
Its
tongue-in-cheek
The idiom tongue-in-cheek refers to a humorous or sarcastic statement expressed in a serious manner.
History
The phrase originally expressed contempt, but by 1842 had acquired its modern meaning. Early users of the phrase include Sir Walter Scott ...
subject matter portrays America as a land of broken promises.
The song opens with a
blaxploitation
Blaxploitation is an ethnic subgenre of the exploitation film that emerged in the United States during the early 1970s. The term, a portmanteau of the words "black" and "exploitation", was coined in August 1972 by Junius Griffin, the president o ...
trailer
blurb
A blurb is a short promotional piece accompanying a piece of creative work. It may be written by the author or publisher or quote praise from others. Blurbs were originally printed on the back or rear dust jacket of a book, and are now also fou ...
, saying "more action, more excitement, more everything",
and features an improvisatory funk
,
RAMP vocalists Sibel Thrasher and Sharon Matthews, and an authoritative male voice,
performed by Keith.
The authoritative character is portrayed as a
circus-barker whose
smoke and mirrors
Smoke and mirrors is a classic technique in magical illusions that makes an entity appear to hover in empty space. It was documented as early as 1770 and spread widely after its use by the charlatan Johann Georg Schröpfer, who claimed the appa ...
presentation of the American Dream leads to contentious dialogue with Badu.
A female voice at the end of the song asks, "Has anyone seen my 42 laws?", an arcane allusion to the 42 divine laws of ancient Egyptian goddess
Maat
Maat or Maʽat ( Egyptian:
mꜣꜥt /ˈmuʀʕat/, Coptic: ⲙⲉⲓ) refers to the ancient Egyptian concepts of truth, balance, order, harmony, law, morality, and justice. Ma'at was also the goddess who personified these concepts, and regul ...
.
![MadlibMarch2014Echo](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/MadlibMarch2014Echo.jpg)
Produced by Madlib, "The Healer" is an ode to
hip hop culture
Hip hop or hip-hop is a culture and art movement that was created by African Americans, Latino Americans and Caribbean Americans in the Bronx, New York City. Hip hop culture is characterized by four key elements: rapping, DJing and turntablis ...
and a proclamation of its scope.
It opens with a brief snippet from a song by
Malcolm McLaren
Malcolm Robert Andrew McLaren (22 January 1946 – 8 April 2010) was an English impresario, visual artist, singer, songwriter, musician, clothes designer and boutique owner, notable for combining these activities in an inventive and provoc ...
featuring the
World's Famous Supreme Team
The World's Famous Supreme Team was an American hip hop radio show duo and recording group active from 1979. The original members were Sedivine the Mastermind (Larry Price) and Just Allah the Superstar (Ronald Larkins Jr.).
Career
The group's ...
.
Frere-Jones notes "bells, unidentifiable knocks, a lonesome instrument that might be a sitar, or a guitar, and lots of empty space" in the musical backdrop, adding that "the music flirts with total stasis, though it still has an audible beat."
Badu's lyrics, delivered in an
incantation
An incantation, a spell, a charm, an enchantment or a bewitchery, is a magical formula intended to trigger a magical effect on a person or objects. The formula can be spoken, sung or chanted. An incantation can also be performed during ceremo ...
style,
make reference to various names of God, including
Allah
Allah (; ar, الله, translit=Allāh, ) is the common Arabic word for God. In the English language, the word generally refers to God in Islam. The word is thought to be derived by contraction from '' al- ilāh'', which means "the god", an ...
,
Jehovah
Jehovah () is a Latinization of the Hebrew , one vocalization of the Tetragrammaton (YHWH), the proper name of the God of Israel in the Hebrew Bible/ Old Testament. The Tetragrammaton is considered one of the seven names of God in Judais ...
,
Yahweh
Yahweh *''Yahwe'', was the national god of ancient Israel and Judah. The origins of his worship reach at least to the early Iron Age, and likely to the Late Bronze Age if not somewhat earlier, and in the oldest biblical literature he posse ...
,
Jah
Jah or Yah ( he, , ''Yāh'') is a short form of (YHWH), the four letters that form the tetragrammaton, the personal name of God: Yahweh, which the ancient Israelites used. The conventional Christian English pronunciation of ''Jah'' is , even th ...
, and
Rastafari
Rastafari, sometimes called Rastafarianism, is a religion that developed in Jamaica during the 1930s. It is classified as both a new religious movement and a social movement by scholars of religion. There is no central authority in control of ...
, while asserting hip hop to be "bigger than" social institutions such as religion and government.
She explained the lyrics and religious references, saying "to me, hip-hop is felt in all religions - it has a healing power. I've recently been to Palestine, Jerusalem, Africa and a bunch of other places, and everyone is listening to hip-hop. There's something about that kicking snare sound that all kinds of people find meaning in."
The autobiographical song "Me" discusses Badu's thoughts and feelings about her life,
including the struggle of growing as a public figure.
She mocks others' perception of her, which she has explained as "everything you can see of Erykah Badu — the
Ankh
Progressive ankylosis protein homolog (ANK ilosis H omolog) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''ANKH'' gene.
This gene encodes a multipass transmembrane protein that is expressed in joints and other tissues and controls pyrophosphate ...
s, the powers, the 5 Percenters, the mysteries, it’s all true. The lies; it’s all true. Had two babies with different daddies. Thirty-six years old and addicted to a variety of spending."
The song's jazz
conclusion has Badu singing about her mother's life and resilience in unison with a muted trumpet.
"
Soldier
A soldier is a person who is a member of an army. A soldier can be a conscripted or volunteer enlisted person, a non-commissioned officer, or an officer.
Etymology
The word ''soldier'' derives from the Middle English word , from Old French ...
" was written by Badu immediately after receiving Riggins' beat for the song. He said Badu wanted it to have a sound similar to J Dilla and his Detroit hip hop scene, which Riggins was inspired by: "A lot of producers from Detroit have a certain sound, and I think it just comes from being in the city." Its
sociopolitical
Political sociology is an Interdisciplinarity, interdisciplinary field of study concerned with exploring how governance and society interact and influence one another at the micro to macro Level of analysis, levels of analysis. Interested in the ...
lyrics have Badu expressing sympathy and solidarity for those facing oppression,
with references to
police corruption
Police corruption is a form of police misconduct in which law enforcement officers end up breaking their political contract and abuse their power for personal gain. This type of corruption may involve one or a group of officers. Internal police ...
,
black-on-black crime
In the United States, the relationship between race and crime has been a topic of public controversy and scholarly debate for more than a century. Crime rates vary significantly between racial groups.
Academic research indicates that the over-re ...
, and
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina was a destructive Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that caused over 1,800 fatalities and $125 billion in damage in late August 2005, especially in the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. It was at the time the cost ...
.
"The Cell" was produced by Husayn and features a lively,
choral
A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which ...
style and
hard bop
Hard bop is a subgenre of jazz that is an extension of bebop (or "bop") music. Journalists and record companies began using the term in the mid-1950s to describe a new current within jazz that incorporated influences from rhythm and blues, gospe ...
feel.
Titled as a metaphor for both heredity and confinement,
the song is a tableau of crime, drugs, and desperation in urban decay,
streamlined by a stark story about Brenda, a character who falls victim to her environment.
Cited by Chavarria as the album's most effects-heavy track, "Twinkle" features a futuristic sound, a convoluted beat, and abstract aural elements such as
white noise
In signal processing, white noise is a random signal having equal intensity at different frequencies, giving it a constant power spectral density. The term is used, with this or similar meanings, in many scientific and technical disciplines, ...
bursts, high-pitched voices, abrasive instruments, and layers of twinkling
keyboard bass
Keyboard bass (shortened to keybass and sometimes referred as a synth-bass) is the use of a smaller, low-pitched keyboard with fewer notes than a regular keyboard or pedal keyboard to substitute for the deep notes of a bass guitar or double bass ...
.
The lyrics lament the plight of the Black community and the cyclical effects on African Americans by the various failures of American social institutions such as the
health care
Health care or healthcare is the improvement of health via the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in people. Health care is delivered by health profe ...
,
education
Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Va ...
, and
prison system
A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correcti ...
s.
Badu raps in the song's verse, "Children of the matrix be hittin’ them car switches / Seen some virgin Virgos hanging out with Venus bitches", followed by her singing, "They don’t know their language, they don’t know their God".
Over humming keyboards, the closing minutes of the song feature a speech in the ancient African language of Mdw Ntchr,
followed by a speaker's rant inspired by actor
Peter Finch
Frederick George Peter Ingle Finch (28 September 191614 January 1977) was an English-Australian actor of theatre, film and radio.
Born in London, he emigrated to Australia as a teenager and was raised in Sydney, where he worked in vaudeville ...
's own rant in the 1976 film ''
Network
Network, networking and networked may refer to:
Science and technology
* Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects
* Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks
Mathematics
...
''.
The speaker angrily laments the state of the world and the complacency of people.
''
Philadelphia Weekly
''Philadelphia Weekly'' (''PW'') is a website based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded as a newspaper in 1971 as ''The Welcomat'', a sister publication to the ''South Philadelphia Press''. In 1995, the paper became ''Philadelphia Weekl ...
''s Craig D. Linsey likened "Twinkle" to a denser version of
Marvin Gaye
Marvin Pentz Gay Jr., who also spelled his surname as Gaye (April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984), was an American singer and songwriter. He helped to shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player and later as a solo ar ...
's 1971 song "
Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)
"Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)", often shortened to "Inner City Blues", is a song by Marvin Gaye, released as the third and final single, and the climactic song from his 1971 landmark album, '' What's Going On''. Written by Gaye and Ja ...
".
"Master Teacher" was conceived by Georgia Anne Muldrow on her
Rhodes piano
The Rhodes piano (also known as the Fender Rhodes piano) is an electric piano invented by Harold Rhodes, which became popular in the 1970s. Like a conventional piano, the Rhodes generates sound with keys and hammers, but instead of strings, t ...
at Sa-Ra's Cosmic Dust Studio with Badu present and was originally intended for one of their albums. Its idyllic music blends mellow soul and glitchy hip hop, featuring a chopped sample of Curtis Mayfield's 1972 song "
Freddie's Dead
"Freddie's Dead" is a song by Curtis Mayfield. It was the first single from his 1972 soundtrack album for the film '' Super Fly''. The single was released before the ''Super Fly'' album, and before the film was in theaters. The song peaked at # ...
".
The song's lyrics envision a higher degree of African-American identity.
Its vocalists ask in
refrain
A refrain (from Vulgar Latin ''refringere'', "to repeat", and later from Old French ''refraindre'') is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in poetry — the "chorus" of a song. Poetic fixed forms that feature refrains include the vi ...
, "What if there was no niggas, only master teachers?",
and answering "I
stay woke
''Woke'' ( ) is an adjective derived from African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) meaning "alert to racial prejudice and discrimination". Beginning in the 2010s, it came to encompass a broader awareness of social inequalities such as sexism ...
", with Badu responding "I'm in the search of something new / Search inside me, searching inside you".
Midway through the song, Poyser's keyboards lower the music's tempo, with a fluid, jazzy sound. "That Hump" concerns the topic of drug dependency.
The closing track "Telephone" is a tribute to J Dilla, who died in 2006 from complications with blood disorder,
and has themes of sorrow and hope.
It serves as a departure from the preceding songs' edgier musical direction, featuring soft melodies and an acoustic feel similar to Badu's live sound. The song opens with the sound of ominous sirens, referencing J Dilla's 2006 album ''
Donuts
A doughnut or donut () is a type of food made from leavened fried dough. It is popular in many countries and is prepared in various forms as a sweet snack that can be homemade or purchased in bakeries, supermarkets, food stalls, and fra ...
''.
The song's lyrics are based on a story told to Badu by J Dilla's mother on the day of his death. Poyser explained in an interview, "Dilla's mom told Erykah about one day when he was telling her about this dream he had where
Ol'Dirty was telling him to get on a different color bus and giving him directions home". According to Poyser, the song's music was inspired by Dilla's passing:
The hidden track "
Honey
Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of plants (primar ...
" is a percussive,
lighthearted love song that contains a sample of singer
Nancy Wilson's 1978 song "I'm in Love".
The track opens with a
reprise
In music, a reprise ( , ; from the verb 'to resume') is the repetition or reiteration of the opening material later in a composition as occurs in the recapitulation of sonata form, though—originally in the 18th century—was simply any repea ...
of "Amerykahn Promise", with an announcer saying, "We hope you enjoyed your journey and now we’re putting control of you back to you", and a countdown leading to "Honey". According to Badu, the song is about "a lover, a fictitious character named Slim, who I'm chasing."
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
's Andy Kellman commented that the song is included as an unlisted track as "it doesn't fit into the album's fabric, what with its drifting, deeply sweetened, synth-squish-and-string-drift groove."
Title and packaging
Before ''New Amerykah''s release, the album was tentatively called ''KahBa'', which Badu derived from her name, as a reference to
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
and
Kemetism
Kemetism (also Kemeticism; both from the Egyptian ', usually voweled Kemet, the native name of ancient Egypt), also sometimes referred to as Neterism (from ' (Coptic ''noute'') "deity"), or Egyptian Neopaganism, is a revival of ancient Egyp ...
.
The title of the album series, ''New Amerykah'', is a
pun
A pun, also known as paronomasia, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use of homophonic ...
of Badu's name.
She has explained one meaning of it as "a statement that simply says, 'This is the beginning of the new world'-for both the slaves and the slave masters. In other words, everybody has to wake up and see. This new world moves much faster. We don't even realize how fast we're moving."
''Part One''s subtitle, ''4th World War'', reflects the content's objective, political leanings, which Badu explained to be "outside of me ... What’s going on outside is the
left brain
The lateralization of brain function is the tendency for some neural functions or cognitive processes to be specialized to one side of the brain or the other. The median longitudinal fissure separates the human brain into two distinct cerebra ...
".
Badu further explained ''New Amerykah''s title in an interview for ''Remix'':
The album's cover and interior artwork were designed by Badu and graphic artist
Emek].
The cover features an abstract portrayal of Badu, who dons vintage nameplate knuckle rings bearing the album title and an
Afro
The afro is a hair type created by natural growth of kinky hair, or specifically styled with chemical curling products by individuals with naturally curly or straight hair.Garland, Phyl"Is The Afro On Its Way Out?" ''Ebony'', February 1973. ...
decorated in a
bric-a-brac manner with various emblems.
Badu and Emek sought to reflect the former's perspective on various topics, including music, religion, governments, and economics, and incorporate emblems to depict American culture and modern society.
Images featured in the Afro include those of flowers, spray cans, dollar signs, power plants, musical notes, toilets, raised fists, needles, laptops, turntables, handcuffs, broken chains,
bar code
A barcode or bar code is a method of representing data in a visual, Machine-readable data, machine-readable form. Initially, barcodes represented data by varying the widths, spacings and sizes of parallel lines. These barcodes, now commonly refe ...
s, drugs, and guns.
The album's interior artwork features ominous, psychedelic, futuristic, and apocalyptic imagery.
The artwork includes illustrations of a red-eyed
Uncle Sam
Uncle Sam (which has the same initials as ''United States'') is a common national personification of the federal government of the United States or the country in general. Since the early 19th century, Uncle Sam has been a popular symbol of ...
pointing a gun, robotic creatures tattooing each other, a bar code bearing the
alphanumeric
Alphanumericals or alphanumeric characters are a combination of alphabetical and numerical characters. More specifically, they are the collection of Latin letters and Arabic digits. An alphanumeric code is an identifier made of alphanumeric ch ...
message "50C1AL 5Y5T3M", and a suited skeleton with a dollar sign on its skull lecturing to a headless audience from a podium that bears the pyramid image from the reverse of the
Great Seal of the United States.
The illustration of a soft melting fork, hypodermic needle, and spoon is an adaptation of
Salvador Dalí
Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (; ; ; 11 May 190423 January 1989) was a Spanish Surrealism, surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, and the striking and bizarr ...
's 1931 painting ''
The Persistence of Memory
''The Persistence of Memory'' (Catalan: ) is a 1931 painting by artist Salvador Dalí and one of the most recognizable works of Surrealism. First shown at the Julien Levy Gallery in 1932, since 1934 the painting has been in the collection of the ...
''.
Marketing and sales
![ERYKAH BADU - Voodoo Music Experience 2008 New Orleans by Vincent Escudero](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/ERYKAH_BADU_-_Voodoo_Music_Experience_2008_New_Orleans_by_Vincent_Escudero.jpg)
The album's
lead single
A lead single (also known as a debut single) is the first single to be released from a studio album by an artist or a band, usually before the album itself is released and also occasionally on the same day of the album's release date.
Release s ...
, "Honey", was released on December 11, 2007. It reached number 88 on the US ''Billboard''
Hot 100
The ''Billboard'' Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), radio play, and online streaming ...
, on which it spent three weeks.
On the
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs
The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by '' Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 ...
, it charted for 17 weeks and peaked at number 22.
A music video for the song was directed by Badu and
Chris Robinson, and released on January 28, 2008. Badu wanted to pay homage to classic records with the video,
which is set in a
small business
Small businesses are types of corporations, partnerships, or sole proprietorships which have fewer employees and/or less annual revenue than a regular-sized business or corporation. Businesses are defined as "small" in terms of being able to ap ...
record store and follows a customer as she looks through vintage R&B, hip hop, and rock LPs, whose album covers are depicted as moving images with Badu cast in them.
In January 2008, Badu also previewed songs from the album as a headlining act at the
Barbados Jazz Festival
The Barbados Jazz Festival was an annual music festival on the Caribbean island of Barbados. It was a week-long celebration held annually in January in Bridgetown.
The festival began in 1993. Acts who performed included James Blunt, Dwane Husbands ...
.
On April 23, she released "
Soldier
A soldier is a person who is a member of an army. A soldier can be a conscripted or volunteer enlisted person, a non-commissioned officer, or an officer.
Etymology
The word ''soldier'' derives from the Middle English word , from Old French ...
" as the album's second single and announced
The Vortex World Tour, a supporting tour to promote the album. The tour's 42 concert dates included shows in the United States, Canada, and
Aruba
Aruba ( , , ), officially the Country of Aruba ( nl, Land Aruba; pap, Pais Aruba) is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands physically located in the mid-south of the Caribbean Sea, about north of the Venezuela peninsula of ...
, spanned from May to June, and featured hip hop band
The Roots
The Roots are an American hip hop band formed in 1987 by Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter and Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The Roots serve as the house band on NBC's ''The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy F ...
as Badu's opening act. She later toured in Europe during June and July.
''New Amerykah Part One'' was released by
Universal Motown Records
Universal Motown Records was an American record label that operated as a division of Universal Motown Republic Group. It was the contemporary incarnation of the legendary Motown Records label, and the "urban" half of UMG, although there were some ...
in the United States on February 26, Badu's 37th birthday.
That same day, a release party took place at the
House of Blues
House of Blues is an American chain of live music concert halls and restaurants. It was founded by Isaac Tigrett, the co-founder of Hard Rock Cafe, and Dan Aykroyd, co-star of the 1980 film ''The Blues Brothers''. The first location opened at ...
in Dallas, and Badu performed songs from the album on
VH1 Soul
BET Soul is an American pay television network that is controlled by the BET Networks division of Paramount Global, which owns the network. The channel showcases R&B, funk, soul, neo soul, hip hop, jazz and Motown music from various decades. T ...
's ''SoulStage''. The record was released in several European countries on February 29,
the United Kingdom on March 3,
and Japan on March 12.
The Japanese and UK editions feature the
bonus track
An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records coll ...
"Real Thang".
The album's digital release to the
iTunes Store
The iTunes Store is a digital media store operated by Apple Inc. It opened on April 28, 2003, as a result of Steve Jobs' push to open a digital marketplace for music. As of April 2020, iTunes offered 60 million songs, 2.2 million apps, 25,00 ...
featured the song's "Tumbling Dice Remix" as a bonus track.
It was also released as a double
vinyl LP
The LP (from "long playing" or "long play") is an analog sound storage medium, a phonograph record format characterized by: a speed of rpm; a 12- or 10-inch (30- or 25-cm) diameter; use of the "microgroove" groove specification; and a ...
on March 11, and on
USB stick
A USB flash drive (also called a thumb drive) is a data storage device that includes flash memory with an integrated USB interface. It is typically removable, rewritable and much smaller than an optical disc. Most weigh less than . Since first ...
format.
Of the accompanying USB stick, Badu told the ''
Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...
'' that "I might as well give a digital world what they need and what they want. And that's to just cut out the
middle man
Middle man or Middleman or The Middle Men may refer to:
* an intermediary, such as:
** a wholesaler
** a reseller
Film, television and books
* ''Middle Man'' (film), a 2016 American black comedy
* ''Middle Man'' (1990 film), the fifth installme ...
, which is the CD, which will be extinct, I would say, in about seven to eight years — right along with the record labels."
In the first week of release, ''New Amerykah Part One'' debuted at number two on the
''Billboard'' 200 chart, selling 125,000 copies in the US.
It was Badu's best opening sales week since her debut album ''
Baduizm
''Baduizm'' is the debut studio album by American singer-songwriter Erykah Badu. It was released on February 11, 1997, by Kedar Records and Universal Records. After leaving university in order to concentrate on music full-time, Badu then began ...
'' in 1997.
It also entered at number two on the ''Billboard''
Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums
Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a music chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine that ranks R&B and hip hop albums based on sales in the United States and is compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The chart debuted as Hot R&B LPs in the issue dated J ...
.
In its second week, the album sold 41,466 copies, and 35,000 in its third week. It spent 15 weeks on the ''Billboard'' 200 and 29 weeks on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums.
By December 2009, it had sold 359,000 copies, according to
Nielsen SoundScan
Luminate (formerly Nielsen SoundScan, Nielsen Music Products, and MRC Data) is a provider of music sales data. Established by Mike Fine and Mike Shalett in 1991, data is collected weekly and made available every Sunday (for albums sales) and eve ...
. In the United Kingdom, ''New Amerykah Part One'' charted at number 55 on the
British albums chart, on which it spent one week.
In France, it debuted at number 49 and spent 11 weeks on the
French albums chart
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with France ...
. In Switzerland, it debuted at number 10 and spent six weeks on the
Swiss chart.
In the Netherlands, the album entered at number 25 and spent seven weeks on the
Mega Album Top 100
The Dutch Album Top 100 or Album Top 100 is a weekly hit list of music albums, compiled by Dutch Charts. List shows the 100 best-selling music albums of the moment in the Netherlands. The list has passed through various name changes and has expand ...
. In Poland, it reached number nine and spent eight weeks on the
Polish chart.
The album's highest international charting was number five in Sweden, where it charted for seven weeks.
Critical reception
''New Amerykah Part One'' was met with widespread critical acclaim. At
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, which assigns a
normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional critics, the album received an
average
In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...
score of 83, based on 27 reviews.
''
Slant Magazine
''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York ...
''s Eric Henderson said it is a powerful listen that stands as Badu's most musically ambitious work,
and Ernest Hardy of the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'' hailed it as "a collection of demanding, disquieting and beautiful urban hymns that reveal their rewards on repeated listenings".
Sasha Frere-Jones from ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'' described the album as "a brilliant resurgence of black
avant-garde
The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...
vocal pop" and "the work of a restless polymath ignoring the world around her and opting for an idiosyncratic, murky feeling that reflects her impulses."
In the ''Chicago Tribune'', Kot wrote that "art this deeply personal" is rarely an easy listen,
while Alex Macpherson of ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' deemed it a rewarding listen that "demands to be explored."
Within the context of the late 2000s' resurgence in classic soul styles across American and British music, Badu's experimental and militant efforts on the album were viewed by ''
The Observer
''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...
''s Steve Yates as "a giant leap forward".
According to ''
Pitchfork
A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves.
The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...
''s Nitsuh Abebe:
Some reviewers were less enthusiastic. Lauren Murphy from ''
Hot Press
''Hot Press'' is a fortnightly music and politics magazine based in Dublin, Ireland, founded in June 1977. The magazine has been edited since its inception by Niall Stokes.
History
''Hot Press'' was founded in June 1977 by Niall Stokes, who co ...
'' was impressed by the project's ambition but believed it played less smoothly and cohesively than Badu's previous albums. ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
'' magazine's Christian Hoard found the singer's socially conscious lyrics unexceptional and too ambiguous, while regarding some songs as "absent-minded doodles".
In ''
MSN Music
''MSN Music'' was a part of MSN's web services. It delivered music news, music videos, spotlights on new music, artist information, and live performances of artists. The website also served as a digital music store from 2004 to 2008.
History
I ...
'',
Robert Christgau
Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...
gave it a
three-star honorable mention, indicating an enjoyable effort, while citing "Amerykahn Promise" and "The Cell" as highlights, but said some of the themes seemed dated in comparison to the music: "When your funk is this futuristic, not to say abstract,
astrology
Astrology is a range of Divination, divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that claim to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of Celestial o ...
and
Farrakhan sound old, not to say ignorant".
At the end of 2008, ''New Amerykah Part One'' was ranked on several critics' lists of the year's best records, including the
Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...
(number 1), ''
The Austin Chronicle
''The Austin Chronicle'' is an alternative weekly newspaper published every Thursday in Austin, Texas, United States. The paper is distributed through free news-stands, often at local eateries or coffee houses frequented by its targeted demogr ...
'' (number 9), ''
Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...
'' (number 5), ''
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
'' (number 8), ''The New York Times'' (number 4), ''
The A.V. Club
''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...
'' (number 8), ''PopMatters'' (number 4), ''Slant Magazine'' (number 8), and ''The Guardian'' (number 9). ''
Spin
Spin or spinning most often refers to:
* Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thread by twisting fibers together, traditionally by hand spinning
* Spin, the rotation of an object around a central axis
* Spin (propaganda), an intentionally b ...
'' ranked the album number 12 on its year-end list, calling it "laptop R&B that uses hip-hop as its muse".
''
Pitchfork
A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves.
The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...
'' later ranked it at number 133 on their list of top 200 albums of the 2000s decade, while ''
Rhapsody
Rhapsody may refer to:
* A work of epic poetry, or part of one, that is suitable for recitation at one time
** Rhapsode, a classical Greek professional performer of epic poetry
Computer software
* Rhapsody (online music service), an online m ...
'' named it the decade's best R&B record. In 2019, it was voted 92nd in ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
''s "The 100 best albums of the 21st century", which polled 45 music journalists.
Track listing
(add.) Additional production
(co.) Co-producer
Sample credits
*"Amerykahn Promise" contains a sample of "American Promise" (1977) performed by
RAMP
An inclined plane, also known as a ramp, is a flat supporting surface tilted at an angle from the vertical direction, with one end higher than the other, used as an aid for raising or lowering a load. The inclined plane is one of the six clas ...
.
[
* "The Healer" contains a sample of "Kono Samuraï" (1971) performed by The Yamasuki Singers.
* "My People" contains a sample of "My People...Hold On" (1972) performed by ]Eddie Kendricks
Edward James Kendrick (December 17, 1939 – October 5, 1992), better known as Eddie Kendricks, was an American singer and songwriter. Noted for his distinctive falsetto singing style, Kendricks co-founded the Motown singing group the Temptatio ...
.
* "Soldier" contains a sample of "Theme" performed by Solution
Solution may refer to:
* Solution (chemistry), a mixture where one substance is dissolved in another
* Solution (equation), in mathematics
** Numerical solution, in numerical analysis, approximate solutions within specified error bounds
* Soluti ...
.
* "Master Teacher" contains a sample of "Freddie's Dead
"Freddie's Dead" is a song by Curtis Mayfield. It was the first single from his 1972 soundtrack album for the film '' Super Fly''. The single was released before the ''Super Fly'' album, and before the film was in theaters. The song peaked at # ...
" (1972) performed by Curtis Mayfield
Curtis Lee Mayfield (June 3, 1942 – December 26, 1999) was an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer, and one of the most influential musicians behind soul and politically conscious African-American music. .
* "Honey" contains a sample of "I'm in Love" (1978) performed by Nancy Wilson.
Personnel
Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes.
* William Allen – arranger (track 1)
* Roy Ayers
Roy Ayers (born September 10, 1940) is an American funk, soul, and jazz composer, vibraphone player, and music producer. Ayers began his career as a post-bop jazz artist, releasing several albums with Atlantic Records, before his tenure at Pol ...
– arranger (track 1)
* Chris Athens – mastering (track 11)
* Erykah Badu
Erica Abi Wright (born February 26, 1971), known professionally as Erykah Badu (), is an American singer-songwriter, record producer and actress. Influenced by rhythm and blues, R&B, Soul music, soul, and hip hop, Badu rose to prominence in the ...
– art direction, design, executive producer, percussion (tracks 4, 6), re-recording engineer (1), remixing (1), talking drum (4), vocal arrangement (3, 5), vocals (All tracks)
* Marc Baptiste – photography
* Chris Bell – recording engineer (tracks 2-11)
* Bilal __NOTOC__
Bilal may refer to:
People
* Bilal (name) (a list of people with the name)
* Bilal ibn Rabah, a companion of Muhammad
* Bilal (American singer)
* Bilal (Lebanese singer)
Places
*Bilal Colony, a neighbourhood of Korangi Town in Karachi, ...
– guest vocals (tracks 2, 4, 7–8)
* Edwin Birdsong
Edwin L. Birdsong (August 22, 1941 – January 21, 2019) was an American keyboardist and organist, known in the 1970s and 1980s for his experimental funk/ disco music. Birdsong did not achieve much chart success, but developed a strong fan bas ...
– arranger (track 1)
* Steve "Thunder Cat" Bruner – bass (tracks 3, 6, 8–9)
* Mike "Chav" Chavarria – additional music programming (tracks 2, 7), additional vocals (5), co-executive producer, sound effects (2, 7), guitar (10), recording engineer (1-9), mixing (all tracks)
* Shanti Das
Shanti Das (born February 19, 1971) is an American music industry executive, marketing consultant, entrepreneur, philanthropist and author. She was most recently Executive Vice President of Urban Marketing and Artist Development at Universal Mo ...
– marketing
* Mike Elizondo
Mike Elizondo (born October 22, 1972) is an American producer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. A protege of Dr. Dre, Elizondo has worked with 50 Cent, Eminem, Carrie Underwood, Fiona Apple, Mastodon, Ry Cooder, Skylar Grey, Twenty ...
– bass (track 10)
* James Patrick Green – engineer (track 1)
* Alfredo Gray – additional vocals (track 5)
* Roy Hargrove
Roy Anthony Hargrove (October 16, 1969 – November 2, 2018) was an American jazz musician and composer whose principal instruments were the trumpet and flugelhorn. He achieved worldwide acclaim after winning two Grammy Awards for differing styles ...
– horns (track 3)
* Shafiq Husayn – arp strings (track 8), associate producer, recording engineer (8), keyboards, music programming (8)
* Jay Electronica
Elpadaro F. Electronica Allah (born Timothy Elpadaro Thedford; September 19, 1976), known professionally as Jay Electronica (stylized as J A Y E L E C T R O N I C A), is an American rapper and record producer. Born and raised in New Orleans, he ...
– associate producer
* Jef Lee Johnson – guitar (tracks 3, 7)
* Ronald Albert Johnson – engineer (track 1)
* Om'Mas Keith
Om'Mas Keith (born December 20, 1976), also known simply as Om'Mas, is a Grammy Award-winning record producer, musician, composer, engineer, and songwriter from Queens, New York, Queens, New York (state), New York. He has worked with Frank Ocean, ...
– recording engineer (tracks 8–9), keyboards (9), synthesizer bass (9), trap drums (9)
* Alex Kruse – assistant recording engineer (track 9)
* Josef Leimberg
Josef Leimberg (born November 29, 1972) is a producer, lyricist, and trumpet player from Los Angeles. He contributed to Kendrick Lamar’s Grammy Award-winning album, To Pimp a Butterfly, and is currently signed with World Galaxy, the jazz imprint ...
– percussion, talking drum (track 4)
* Georgia Anne Muldrow
Georgia Anne Muldrow (born 1983) is an American musician from Los Angeles, California. In 2008, she co-founded the SomeOthaShip Connect record label with fellow artist and former husband Dudley Perkins.
Life and career
Georgia Anne Muldrow grew ...
– freestyled lyrics (track 8), keyboards, vocals (8)
* James Poyser
James Jason Poyser is an American songwriter, record producer, musician and current member of the hip hop band The Roots.
Poyser has written and produced songs for various legendary and award-winning artists such as Erykah Badu, Mariah Carey, ...
– keyboards (track 3, 9-10)
* RAMP
An inclined plane, also known as a ramp, is a flat supporting surface tilted at an angle from the vertical direction, with one end higher than the other, used as an aid for raising or lowering a load. The inclined plane is one of the six clas ...
– vocals (track 1)
* Karriem Riggins
Karriem Riggins is an American jazz drummer, hip hop producer, DJ and songwriter.
Biography
Riggins was born in Detroit, Michigan, United States, son of keyboardist Emmanuel Riggins. As a child, he would often watch his father perform with G ...
– trap drums (track 9)
* Omar Rodríguez-López
Omar Alfredo Rodríguez-López (born September 1, 1975) is an American guitarist and songwriter. He has formed or played in several bands, including the Mars Volta, At the Drive-In, Antemasque, and Bosnian Rainbows. He was the bassist for the ...
– guitar (track 7)
* Kay K Rosemond – additional vocals (track 5)
* Tom Soares – additional engineering (track 5), mixing (tracks 1-10), re-recording engineer (1), vocal re-recording (10)
* Jerry Soloman – engineer (track 1)
* Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson
Ahmir Khalib Thompson (born January 20, 1971), known professionally as Questlove (stylized as ), is an American musician, record producer, disc jockey, filmmaker, music journalist, and actor. He is the drummer and joint frontman (with Black Thou ...
– drums (track 10)
* Ty & Kory – additional vocals (track 8)
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
See also
* ''Airtight's Revenge
''Airtight's Revenge'' is the third studio album by American singer-songwriter Bilal. It was released on September 6, 2010, by the independent record label Plug Research, his first album for the label.
Bilal began composing music for the album us ...
'', a 2010 album by singer-songwriter and fellow Soulquarian member Bilal __NOTOC__
Bilal may refer to:
People
* Bilal (name) (a list of people with the name)
* Bilal ibn Rabah, a companion of Muhammad
* Bilal (American singer)
* Bilal (Lebanese singer)
Places
*Bilal Colony, a neighbourhood of Korangi Town in Karachi, ...
, also conceived using GarageBand
GarageBand is a line of digital audio workstations developed by Apple Inc. for macOS, iPadOS, and iOS devices that allows users to create music or podcasts. GarageBand is developed by Apple for macOS, and was once part of the iLife software s ...
* Afrofuturism
Afrofuturism is a cultural aesthetic, and philosophy of science and history that explores the intersection of the African diaspora culture with science and technology. It addresses themes and concerns of the African diaspora through technocu ...
* Hip hop production
Hip hop production is the creation of hip hop music in a recording studio. While the term encompasses all aspects of hip hop music creation, including recording the rapping of an MC, a turntablist or DJ providing a beat, playing samples and " ...
Notes
References
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*
External links
*
{{Authority control
2008 albums
Albums produced by 9th Wonder
Albums produced by James Poyser
Albums produced by Karriem Riggins
Albums produced by Madlib
Albums produced by Sa-Ra
Albums produced by Questlove
Albums recorded at Electric Lady Studios
Concept albums
Electronica albums by American artists
Erykah Badu albums
Universal Motown Records albums