Erykah Badu’s fans regard her as a quasi-mystical pseudo-sorceress. But she’s just a person, and she’ll make her next record when she’s good and ready.
“I’M GATHERING IDEAS,” says Erykah Badu over dinner at a vegan restaurant in Manhattan. “I’m uploading.” Badu, in a baggy sweater, oversize eyeglasses, and giant fedora, is talking about why she hasn’t released an album of new material since 2010’s New Amerykah Part Two—and why she isn’t particularly concerned about it. “I’ll download new ideas at some point.” Her old ones are still making the rounds: The R&B singer’s debut album, 1997’s Baduizm, is tentatively slated for reissue as a set of vinyl 45s, and Badu, who will turn 47 in February, performs live around the world eight months out of every year. We spoke with her about what the next year might hold.
You’re one of the rare musicians who stay relevant with listeners younger than themselves. How much of that is because you’re good on social media?
If it’s anything, it’s that I understand where young people are coming from. I don’t try and fight it. What’s interesting to me about music and the younger generation is that what we hear on the radio is more about frequency and sound than words. People talk about “mumble rap,” but that’s because they don’t understand that the important thing is the vibration, not the words. The kids need vibrations, because their attention span is about three seconds.
How much has hip-hop changed in the two decades since Baduizm?
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة February 5–18, 2018 من New York magazine.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة February 5–18, 2018 من New York magazine.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
LIFE AS A MILLENNIAL STAGE MOM
A journey into the CUTTHROAT and ADORABLE world of professional CHILD ACTORS.
THE NEXT DRUG EPIDEMIC IS BLUE RASPBERRY FLAVORED
When the Amor brothers started selling tanks of flavored nitrous oxide at their chain of head shops, they didn't realize their brand would become synonymous with the country's burgeoning addiction to gas.
Two Texans in Williamsburg
David Nuss and Sarah Martin-Nuss tried to decorate their house on their own— until they realized they needed help: Like, how do we not just go to Pottery Barn?”
ADRIEN BRODY FOUND THE PART
The Brutalist is the best, most personal work he's done since The Pianist.
Art, Basil
Manuela is a farm-to-table gallery for hungry collectors.
'Sometimes a Single Word Is Enough to Open a Door'
How George C. Wolfein collaboration with Audra McDonald-subtly, indelibly reimagined musical theater's most domineering stage mother.
Rolling the Dice on Bird Flu
Denial, resilience, déjà vu.
The Most Dangerous Game
Fifty years on, Dungeons & Dragons has only grown more popular. But it continues to be misunderstood.
88 MINUTES WITH...Andy Kim
The new senator from New Jersey has vowed to shake up the political Establishment, a difficult task in Trump's Washington.
Apex Stomps In
The $44.6 million mega-Stegosaurus goes on view (for a while) at the American Museum of Natural History.
