'I'm not sorry I said it': Erykah Badu on music, motherhood and wildly unpopular opinions

The neo-soul star has sold millions, raised three kids and embodied wokeness before the word was even coined. But can her reputation survive January’s ‘I saw something good in Hitler’ comment?

Everyone should call Erykah Badu at least once, if only to hear her answerphone message. You dial her number, the phone rings through and an extravagant list of options greets you. “If you’re calling to wish Erykah happy MLK day, Kwanzaa or Juneteenth, press one,” it begins. “If you’re asking for tickets to a show, but know I don’t really fuck with you like that, press six.” And on it goes, ending with: “You should probably send me a text. I don’t really do voicemail.” It’s part practical joke, part album skit, part self-deprecating indulgence. After a couple more attempts to get through and a few texts, the phone does get picked up. “Peace,” says a voice on the other end. “It’s Badu.”

It makes a fitting start to a conversation with one of pop’s most eccentric and influential figures. Name a hugely successful R&B star of the past decade and it’s more than likely there is a touch of Badu in their work. Amy Winehouse, Rihanna, Beyoncé, Janelle Monáe and even Grimes have all, at some point, referenced or collaborated with her; Barack Obama included her on one of his summer 2015 Spotify playlists; Givenchy chose her as the face of its spring-summer 2014 campaign. In the same way that Tupac holds a saintly place in the nave of hip-hop, Badu has become a kind of R&B deity who, despite releasing her last album – the critically adored New Amerykah Part One (4th World War) – more than a decade ago, can still be seen at the top of lineups at festivals such as London’s Field Day, which she headlines next weekend.

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2s89opx