Erykah Badu, a living legend among RnB and hip hop musicians, is back in the booth.
Her upcoming album will mark the neo-soul pioneer’s much welcome return to the music industry, with The Alchemist taking over the production duties for the entire project. The news broke recently, in an exclusive artist interview with Billboard, where Badu spoke about her history with music, her relationship with live performances, and her roots as a theatre artist.
Speaking to Billboard about her journey with music and rap, as well as having children who make music, Badu remarked how ,“rap is the people. Hip-hop is the people. It’s the folks. It’s the tribe. I have the luxury of experiencing having children who I watch grow up and love and encourage very much, and I cannot separate them when I see artists who are that age coming up. That’s how they feel. They are continuing the tradition.” This is not at all surprising, for Badu herself was once a young musician who broke the norms of studio work, pioneering some of the ways in which modern bedroom musicians work.
While Badu did not reveal much about the project with Alchemist, she did touch up on how the album is taking most of her time — that it is a project being worked upon diligently and excitedly. So far, no date has been announced.
The last time we had Badu excited resulted in classic projects like Baduism and New Amerykah Part One (4th World War) and the birth of the term neo-soul, which revolutionised fusion music so much so, that it continues to inspire modern popular music. Will the upcoming project do the same? Quite likely seeing as Alchemist is at the helm of sonic innovation with collaborators like Larry June, Kendrick Lamar and ScHoolboy Q.
