Don’t listen to the tabloids, they’re not always true, but what they say about me and the men? Yeah, that’s true.
“Brooklyn, how you feel?” Erykah Badu, hidden behind a curtain, yelled as a group of hard-core fans gathered at St. Anne’s Warehouse in DUMBO Brooklyn to see their queen.
Polished and camera-ready, many of the fans were hoping to get some face time on the “tizube” as Badu performed for the taping of VH-1 Soul’s Storytellers set to air tomorrow (Feb. 26).
Badu appeared onstage looking like the larger-than-life diva that still somehow manages to remain a mystery in popular soul, she is: Afro wig, bright purple fitted pants, electric-blue patent-leather Louboutin pumps, and a quilted napa leather jacket.
When she finally reached the mic, she questioned the audience for the second time: “Brooklyn, how ya feel? Sisters, how ya feel? Brothers, how ya feel?” she asked before breaking into the Madlib-produced gem “The Healer” off her latest album New Amerykah.
“Hip hop… it’s bigger than religion," she sings, sending the audience into a trance. "Hip hop, it’s bigger than my nigga/ hip hop, it's bigger than the government.”
The depth of her words were suddenly broken up when she got on the synthesizer adding extra synthesized beats into the song, before dedicating the performance to frequent collaborator, the late producer J. Dilla.
With the crowd open and the stage smoky, Badu drove into 1997’s hit “On and On.” Lost in the moment in a two-step, Badu loosened up before taking an introspective look at herself.
“Can’t believe I’m 36, “ she said thoughtfully. “My ass and my legs got thick. Will I escape this vanity or keep smoking trees?” It was obvious that the women and men in the crowd could relate, when hands began to sway and rock like they were at church.
“I’m constantly trying to get it together,” Erykah says as she slid off her leather jacket (her t-shirt read: “I can’t be overdrawn, I still have checks left”).
“My album on Feb. 26 is part one of a bigger project," she continued. "Part one, called Fourth World War, describes the war you have with yourself. Part two, Return of the Ankh, is more spiritual and emotional.”
During “Apple Tree” Badu stops the music. “I first started out as an emcee in Dallas, Texas,” she reminisced. “It was me and my cousin, we called ourselves Erykah and Free the Funky Cousins. When I started singing, I didn’t know I could sing, it just worked. We became local celebrities and opened for people like Biggie and Mobb Deep. We had like a hip-hop-mixed-with-jazz sound, because the jazz scene is big in Dallas. When I finally got signed, the first thing I wanted to do was work with The Roots.”
With tons of energy she delivered “Other Side of the Game,” a song composed with The Roots, and then the chopped and screwed version of Amerykah's lead single “Honey.”
Getting comfortable after removing her heels, she moves the conversation to Eric Benet (the “sex addict” who opened for her a couple of times, which led to rumors of course), and warns the audience to pay the tabloids no attention.
“Don’t listen to the tabloids, they’re not always true, but what they say about me and the men? Yeah, that’s true," she admits referring to her relationships with Common and baby's father Andre 3000, in a moment of raw humor. "I got ’em wearing crochet pants, but they still soldiers.” With thunderous laughter from the crowd, Badu introduces her next single off the album “Soldier 7.”
No one is ready to go, but the camera and production crews are signaled to wrap it up. Erykah, feeling the crowd’s disappointment, performs the one song she says is one of her favorites to parlay live: “Didn’t Cha Know.”
“There will be a brighter day,” she chants until the crowd really begins to feel her truth. She shouts out fellow soul sisters Lauryn Hill (“We miss you Lauryn”), Mary J Blige, Jill Scott, and India Arie.
“I am a touring artist, who records on the side,” she said. “In recording, you are perfecting a moment. In touring, you are creating the moment. I’d rather do that.”
And the crowd couldn’t agree more.
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Comments
1.
blackartdepo says:
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You gotta love Erykah Badu. I dig her so much. She like Soul Sister #1, word! When she come the ATL, I'm there I gotta have a ticket. A breath of fresh air for R&B or Hip-Hop or.....it's just good music man, enough with the labels already.....
March 2, 2008 at 5:16 pm
2.
Bigsexxy says:
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Just want to say you my gurl Erykah!
February 29, 2008 at 11:07 pm