Erykah Badu: C /D, S&D

xpost - "Honey" did pretty good on Urban Adult-Contemporary radio, but outside of that it underperformed

It's still climbing, albeit very slowly (#29 now, #30 last week, #32 the week before that), on the R&B/Hip-Hop chart.

which tracks did sa-ra produce, anyway?

3 - Shafiq Husayn
6 - Shafiq Husayn, Erykah Badu
7 - Taz Arnold, Shafiq Husayn, Erykah Badu, Mike Chavarria
8 - Shafiq Husayn
9 - Erykah Badu, Om'Mas Keith, Shafiq Husayn

(Husayn, Arnold, Keith = Sa-Ra)

"is the opening track an old roy ayers track, or a new roy ayers production?"

its a sample from a roy ayers produced group called RAMP.

-- titchyschneiderMk2, Tuesday, February 26, 2008 5:08 PM (40 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

Hehe -- yeah, basically some voices over the WHOLE of "The American Promise." The RAMP album (which is so much more than "Daylight," "Everybody Loves the Sunshine") was reissued in the States last year by Verve and is very cheap.

Apparently I like Sa-Ra alot, since I think the album's B-side is the stronger one.

But, man, is it all good.

Oh, and Roy Ayers, Edwin Birdsong and William Allen are all credited as producers/writers on track one.

sa-ra just have the worst vocals ever on their own material. which is why it sucks so bad a lot of the time. they should stick to producing for other people, like erykah or bilal or whoever and STFU or just make instrumentals. then again i find a lot of their own stuff derivative or just too 'soft' anyway.

im sure roy doesnt mind - he was on mamas gun anyway.

the sa-ra hate is retarded. vocals are so rad. unfortunately the album the eventually released sucked. singles and weird shit that was passed around on cdr for years before album is mindblowing.

Telephone is a eulogy to dillah. especially apparent w/the sirens he used all over donuts. also love the fact that she redid one of my favorite songs - eddie kendricks "my people" also used on donuts.

Cover reminds me of The O'Jays' SURVIVAL.

I would really like to hear Erykah Badu cover Siouxsie & the Banshees, particularly Tinderbox-era songs.

have to agree w jaxon on sa ra. i obtained said cd-r of sa-ra instrumentals/bsides in 2002, and they were fucking brilliant pieces of synthy/damaged soul hip-hop. at the time everyone was jocking; kanye, common, all wanted a piece of sa-ra production.since then, they've done alot of work, but somehow kind of fizzled in many peoples eyes. some of the remix work is great, some of it's not so great. that album they released later on ubiquity is aight but nothing near the expectations people had after all those tracks that were passed around. the work they did on this badu record i have to say though is pretty amazing.

I rather like Dan's idea.

I love Karriem Riggins (even though his track here isn't one of the flashier ones).

sick
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55Lf1wMylIE

couple tracks in so far, feeling it.

Telephone is a eulogy to dillah. especially apparent w/the sirens he used all over donuts. also love the fact that she redid one of my favorite songs - eddie kendricks "my people" also used on donuts.

OTM, that kendricks track is mind-blowing. would love to hear the whole LP it came from. telephone kills me, i loved common's dilla tribute on finding forever too. thanks titchy and andy for RAMP info.

jaw drops around 1:30 (xpost)

Look for Michael Jackson’s little sister Janet to enter next week’s chart at #1, with her new IDJ album Discipline headed for 180k in sales, give or take. Universal Motown’s neo-soul stalwart Erykah Badu is a lock for #2 (hey, that rhymes) with between 125-135k.

kinda low :-/

actually that's pretty good! considering "honey"wasn't that big... I expected about 150K and it can still probably do that.

Janet, however... those numbers are sad.

x-post -- Yeah, but given the business climate and all, not surprising.

stevie, that Kendricks album is unfortunately nothing like the title track. the rest is nice sweet soul. i remember one other good track on it.

OTM, that kendricks track is mind-blowing. would love to hear the whole LP it came from.

The album of which you speak, People...Hold On, does blow much, much mind from beginning to end. Now I gotta put on "Eddie's Love."

i am listening to the ramp track now. hahahaha, awesome!

haha, the singer on the ramp stuff sounds kinda badu-ish.

my favorite ramp song is that disco-ish one that got reissued on 12" recently ... i cant remember what its called but i bought a copy and like it more than anything (yes anything!!) on the lp

: D : D : D : D

People... Hold On has five classics at the least: My People Hold On, Date With the Rain, Girl You Need a Change of Mind, If You Let Me, Eddie's Love. A couple others are hardly filler.

Most solo Kendricks tracks are worth listening to because of that sweet sweet voice of his.

this is good but nowhere near as good as mama's gun. needs more rhodes!

i agree w/chaki

so far (i've only listened to the whole thing once and have listened to the first half like 4 or 5 times), The Healer, My People and The Cell are standouts.

anyone know what the sample/break is on the Cell or if that's live drumming looped?

Badu on SoulStage:

http://www.vh1.com/video/play.jhtml?id=1582333&vid=212498

I need to see her live.

i agree w/chaki & jaxon. there aren't a lot of hooks here, and the healer is my favorite.

pretty sure the drums on the cell are not live.

Hooks? You're worried about HOOKS, and comparisons to earlier records, and trying to trainspot drum sounds, when there is all this twisted shit on display? Seriously? Wow. That's...admirable, I guess. I'm just trying to imagine looking at music that way anymore.

plus, there are lots of hooks on this album.

Actually I'm a little surprised that, until now, the ILX reaction was as uniformly positive as it was. This is a pretty uncompromising album on the whole.

"to all my girls in therapy
see i'm a tell you this for free"

wooo!

only heard it once, but so far my favorite thing is that the album ends with "honey".

Hooks? You're worried about HOOKS

yes, because they make songs sound good.

and comparisons to earlier records

yes, because she made one much better than this.

Wow. That's...admirable, I guess. I'm just trying to imagine looking at music that way anymore.

wow. whatta douche.

this a very good, interesting album. i like it in its own right. mamas gun is way better, songwise, but this is still good in its own way. theres some things i wish were a bit diff about it and its not the masterpiece you guys have all made it out to be but my interest is piqued for part 2 this year.

i wish they replayed the RAMP song rather than just loop it up like they have done.

"Hooks? You're worried about HOOKS

yes, because they make songs sound good."

they are not the only thing that makes songs good.

"and comparisons to earlier records

yes, because she made one much better than this."

i mean, i love her older stuff very much, but i am definitely way into the route she is going.

"Wow. That's...admirable, I guess. I'm just trying to imagine looking at music that way anymore.

wow. whatta douche.

-- chaki"

personally, i'm all about artists just doing their thing. i get the vibe from her last 2 joints that she no longer feels like she has to compromise her sound in any way, and i think her music is all the better for it. hiphop and soul are not separate in her world, and i like that. it's not about songs, but about pure feeling and mood which i also really like. someone somewhere mentioned this album being like "Voodoo", and i kind of agree with that in general, but it is not like they sound alike in any way really. it's the way they achieve what they do, it's like "ambient soul" or something, and it is far more interesting to me than just another "hook" or whatever.

i'm not saying this album is an instant classic, it seems too difficult of a record to say something like that about without hearing it more times than i have so far. but i really like it, and i will be playing it enough that if it is a classic, it will shine through.

except for that last line, i kinda agree w/ pcock

honestly, i'm more excited about discovering this RAMP album! it's great.

I've already listened to this one about 15 times.

It's probably a classic.

in the last complex, there's a blurb claiming erykah produced the whole thing in GarageBand.