Erykah Badu: C /D, S&D

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.

sounds like it

does that mean on top of what all the other producers gave her?

you should email her and ask.

i heard she answers all her emails in Outlook

hey would an ex-fan who saw her live on the MAMA'S GUN tour and became pretty disenchanted soon after be advised to get this? i listened to the first album obsessively, thought ...GUN had it's moments, didn't bother with the third album.

nah you'd hate it.

????

hey chaki why are you trolling this thread

oh yeah I'm a douche, never mind

bye everyone!

as much of a troll chaki is, i don't think he's trolling on this thread at all. it's not a perfect album. it's good and i'm warming up to it, but it's not her best work

=/= 'youd hate it'

i love the new album, but i could see why someone who loved baduizm but hated mama's gun might hate this - its another (awesome) step away from the first album's (awesome) relative orthodoxy.

im not trolling you just said something completely douchey.

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

way to be completely fucking condescending.

Erykah Badu: New Amerykah, Pt. 1: 4th World War (Motown) I know when I make my albums, I like to give 'em titles that roll off the tongue like this one! Let's be frankish: Ms. Badu is one classy lady, a warm and very convincing singer who garnered boatloads of attention a few years back not just for her voice but for intriguing headgear ensembles--and she'll never release a Pt. 2 of this thing for all eternity! Featuring the late J. Dilla , Bilal, Madlib, and a bunch of other well known guys who appear on albums like this, NAP14WW--not a postal code but an acronym!--continues her distinguished and singular tradition of fine albums by Erykah Badu! Buy it and keep her favorite millinery supply house in business!

from some Yahoo! dude's music blog

This record is so fucking good.

I just had to say that again.

I'm done waffling. Total masterpiece.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rF4H4ebFVWE

^^ that's kinda what this album sounds like to me

from some Yahoo! dude's music blog

i swear it's not me!

"the first album's (awesome) relative orthodoxy."

what? there wasnt much orthodoxy on the first album, not compared to mamas gun anyway. that was a much more (brilliantly) traditional sounding record. stuff like apple tree and on and on though sounded very modern.

Big interview/feature article on her in the Sunday New York Times by writer Melana Ryzik excerpt:

She took time off to care for her two children — she also has a daughter, Puma, 3, with the rapper D.O.C. (Her kids’ beds, mattresses on the floor, are feet away from hers in her Brooklyn living room. The family mostly lives in a house in Dallas.) Meanwhile the music industry entered the digital age, and Ms. Badu, a self-described “analog girl in a digital world,” was in danger of being left behind.

But in 2004 ?uestlove gave her a computer — her first — for Christmas. She chatted online with producer friends like him, Q-Tip and J Dilla, and they began to bombard her with music. “Everybody sending me these things, saying, ‘Erykah, come on, we want you back, we need you to do this,’ ” Ms. Badu said.

Her son introduced her to GarageBand, the music-making program for Macs, and she was off. With the 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,” she said. “You got an idea — boom! Idea, boom!”

In about a year she wrote more than 75 songs, many of which she split among the three albums

Here's the link

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/02/arts/music/02ryzi.html?ref=music

Ms. Badu also plans to start a lifestyle magazine, The Freaq, this summer; the first issue will come with a copy of “New AmErykah: Part Two.” Both records will also be available on a U.S.B. stick for fans to plug into their computers; for added value Ms. Badu wants to record a U.S.B. commentary track to explain her references and inspiration. A tour will start in May.

“I swear to God, this must be my artistic peak,” Ms. Badu said in an earlier interview at Electric Lady

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/images/a_baldwin.jpg

SYNERGY

Finally heard Amerykah in its entirety. Just retrieved my jaw from the empty lot across the street.

this is fucking awesome btw did i say that

I'm still trying to make heads or tails of this. I am sure that I like it, I'm just not sure if it's as branemelting as everyone says it is.

nah some tracks are hella boring

Seriously. I'm a bit of a Badu fan, and I thought Worldwide Underground was the jam, and I do think this new one is pretty cool, but I just don't understand all the hyperbole in this thread. It's really not breaking any new ground, in my opinion.

i think its great but 'mindblowing' does feel a little strong
i dont really like 'master teachers'

why can't you people just let other people enjoy things.

ha deej was just coming here to say i really like master teachers

lolz @ lounge breakdown

I actually think "Master Teachers" might be my favorite song on the album. I'm loving whoever the other singer on it is.

it's georgia anne muldrow (and bilal)

why can't you people just let other people enjoy things.

-- The Brainwasher, Tuesday, March 4, 2008 12:33 AM (23 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

ive been unreserved in my the-dream praise!! anyway whatever i still think this album rules

its funny how the ilx-consensus on erykah has changed so much from the beginning of this thread to now (and just cos a lot of neo soul sucked/sucks, doesnt mean the first wave of artists werent good - dangelo, erykahs first album, maxwell, groove theory - all classic IMO).

i still think the highpoints on baduzim and mamas gun definitely are better/more rewarding than those on the new album but its a different, denser, more difficult sort of album.

i dont like master teachers either. i hate georgia anne as a vocalist.

i'm still not freaking on it, but some stuff is growing on me. it seems like every song is about two minutes longer than i think it's going to be, and at that point either it switches up into something different or just keeps going and i get bored.

btw that whole quote about garage band sounds like she just used it to write/demo songs, not actually produce the record?

Yea, because she was then going into Electric Lady Studios.

And working with Madlib, 9th Wonder, and Sa-Ra