Erykah Badu

Thursday, 22 November 2012

Erykah Badu feat. Common - Love Of My Life

Erykah Badu - Baduizm - On & On, Appletree & Otherside Of The Game

My Morning Jacket - Tyrone feat. Erykah Badu Unstaged

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Dallas, Texas
Dallas ( /ˈdæləs/) is the third-largest city in the state of Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States. Divided between Collin, Dallas, Denton, Kaufman, and Rockwall counties, the city had a population of 1,197,816 in 2010, according to the United States Census Bureau.
The city is the largest economic center of the 12-county Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan area (the DFW MSA) that according to the March 2010 U.S. Census Bureau release, had a population of 6,371,773. The metroplex economy is the sixth largest in the United States, with a 2010 gross metropolitan product of $374 billion.
Dallas was founded in 1841 and was formally incorporated as a city in February 1856. The city's economy is primarily based on banking, commerce, telecommunications, computer technology, energy, healthcare and medical research, transportation and logistics. The city is home to the third largest concentration of Fortune 500 companies in the nation. Located in North Texas and a major city in the American South, Dallas is the main core of the largest inland metropolitan area in the United States that lacks any navigable link to the sea.

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Ghana
Ghana ⁱ/ˈɡɑːnə/ is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south. The word Ghana means "Warrior King" and is derived from the ancient Ghana Empire.
Ghana was inhabited in pre-colonial times by a number of ancient predominantly Akan kingdoms, including the inland Ashanti Empire, the Akwamu, the Akyem, the Bonoman, the Denkyira, and the Fante among others. Non-Akan states created by the Ga also existed as did states by the Dagomba. Prior to contact with Europeans trade between the Akan and various African states flourished due to Akan's gold wealth. Trade with European states began after contact with the Portuguese in the 15th century, and the British established the Gold Coast Crown colony in 1874 over parts but not all of the country.
The Gold Coast achieved independence from the United Kingdom in 1957, becoming the First sub-Saharan African nation to do so from European Colonialism. The name Ghana was chosen for the new nation to reflect the ancient Empire of Ghana, which once extended throughout much of west Africa.

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Texas
Texas (ⁱ/ˈtɛksəs/) (Alibamu: Teksi ) is the second most populous and the second most extensive of the 50 United States, and the most extensive state of the 48 contiguous United States. The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in East Texas. Located in the South Central United States, Texas shares an international border with the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas to the south, and borders the US states of New Mexico to the west, Oklahoma to the north, Arkansas to the northeast, and Louisiana to the east. Texas has an area of 268,820 square miles (696,200 km²), and a growing population of 25.7 million residents.
During the Spanish colonial rule, the area was officially known as the Nuevo Reino de Filipinas: La Provincia de Texas. Antonio Margil de Jesús was known to be the first person to use the name in a letter to the Viceroy of Mexico in July 20, 1716. The name was not popularly used in daily speech but often appeared in legal documents until the end of the 1800s.

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United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK, or Britain) is a sovereign state located off the north-western coast of continental Europe. The country includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border the UK is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel and the Irish Sea.
The United Kingdom is a unitary state governed under a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary system, with its seat of government in the capital city of London. It is a country in its own right and consists of four countries: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. There are three devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in Belfast, Edinburgh and Cardiff, the capitals of Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Associated with the UK, but not constitutionally part of it, are three Crown Dependencies. The United Kingdom has fourteen overseas territories. These are remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in 1922, encompassed almost a quarter of the world's land surface and was the largest empire in history. British influence can still be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former territories.

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United States
The United States of America (commonly abbreviated to the United States, the U.S., the USA, America, and the States) is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to the east and Russia to the west, across the Bering Strait. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also possesses several territories in the Pacific and Caribbean.
At 3.79 million square miles (9.83 million km²) and with over 312 million people, the United States is the third or fourth largest country by total area, and the third largest by both land area and population. It is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries. The U.S. economy is the world's largest national economy, with an estimated 2011 GDP of $15.1 trillion (22% of nominal global GDP and over 19% of global GDP at purchasing-power parity). Per capita income is the world's sixth-highest.

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Vernon, Texas
Vernon is a city in Wilbarger County, Texas, United States. As of the 2000 census, the population was 11,660; it was 11,077 in the 2005 census estimate. Vernon is the county seat of Wilbarger County.
Vernon is the birthplace of rock and roll singer/musician Roy Orbison and jazz trombonist Jack Teagarden. It is the hometown of fiddle player Eck Robertson. Lawyer Kenneth Starr (special prosecutor of U.S. President Bill Clinton) was born in 1946 in the Lockett community, six miles southwest of Vernon.
Some seven million head of cattle passed through Vernon on the Great Western Trail between 1873 and the 1890s. The trail was located some ninety miles west and parallel to the better-known Chisholm Trail.
On April 10, 1979, Vernon and surrounding Wilbarger County were hit by an F4 tornado. The storm, part of the 1979 Red River Valley tornado outbreak, damaged or destroyed a large part of the city and killed 11 people as it passed through Foard County and Wilbarger County before finally dissipating in rural Tillman County, Oklahoma. That same day, tornadoes also devastated the larger, nearby cities of Wichita Falls, Texas and Lawton, Oklahoma.

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9th Wonder
Patrick Douthit (born January 15, 1975 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina), better known as 9th Wonder is a hip hop record producer, record executive, DJ, lecturer, and lyricist from Durham, North Carolina, U.S. He began his career as the main producer for the group Little Brother, and has also worked with Mary J. Blige, Jean Grae, Wale, Jay-Z, Murs, Drake, Buckshot, Chris Brown, Destiny's Child, J. Cole, Kendrick Lamar, Erykah Badu, Ludacris, Mac Miller, and David Banner. As of 2010, 9th Wonder raps under the name of 9thmatic.
9th Wonder has a smooth and soulful production style that relies on samples from artists such as Al Green and Curtis Mayfield. He attributes the bass lines that he uses in production to DJ Premier, Pete Rock and J Dilla, while he claims to have learned "Aahs" from RZA.^{[clarification needed]}
9th Wonder's first significant career breakthrough came in 2003 when, as an up-and-coming producer, he released an unofficial remix album of Nas' 2002 album God's Son entitled God's Stepson. Released through internet outlets, the album garnered significant attention and acclaim. The producer has said that he was not thinking in terms of using it to generate a buzz or promote his skills and that at that point: "I never thought any of this of me as a producer was going to happen." The album has since been credited as starting the now regular trend for unofficial 'home-made' remixes of whole albums.

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?uestlove
Ahmir Khalib Thompson (born on January 20, 1971) known professionally as ?uestlove or Questlove (also known as BROther ?uestion, Questo, Brother Question or Qlove), is an American drummer, DJ, music journalist and record producer. He is best known as the drummer and joint frontman (with Black Thought) for the Grammy Award-winning band The Roots, which is now the in-house band for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.
He has produced for artists such as Common, D'Angelo, Jill Scott, Erykah Badu, Bilal, Jay-Z, Nikka Costa and more recently, Al Green, Amy Winehouse and John Legend. He is a member of the production teams the Soulquarians, The Randy Watson Experience, and The Grand Wizzards.
Thompson was born in Philadelphia on January 20, 1971. His father was Lee Andrews of Lee Andrews & the Hearts, one of the great 50s doo-wop groups.^{[citation needed]} His parents did not want to leave him with babysitters, so they took him on tour with them. He grew up in backstages of doo-wop shows. By the age of seven, Thompson began drumming on stage at shows, and by 13, had become a musical director.

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Angie Stone
Angie Stone (born Angela Laverne Brown on December 18, 1961) is an American R&B and soul singer-songwriter, record producer, and occasional actress. She has been nominated for three Grammy Awards. She has been most successful on the R&B charts, with four Top 10 albums, including a number one album, and ten singles, including a Top 10. She has sold over 1.4 millions albums in the U.S. and over 5 millions albums worldwide.
Stone was born in Columbia, South Carolina, where she began singing gospel music at First Nazareth Baptist Church, under the leadership of Reverend Blakely N. Scott.
She has a daughter and son. Her daughter Diamond (born 1984) is from her marriage to Rodney Stone (also known as Lil' Rodney C!, from the hip hop group Funky Four Plus One). Diamond contributed background vocals to her 2007 song "Baby", and gave birth to Stone's grandson in 2008. During the 1990s Stone dated neo soul singer D'Angelo. Their son Michael was born in 1998. Stone lives in Atlanta, Georgia with Michael and fiancé Ashanti, an airline auditor who has two children of his own.

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Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Harris April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing. Her vocal style, strongly inspired by jazz instrumentalists, pioneered a new way of manipulating phrasing and tempo.
Critic John Bush wrote that Holiday "changed the art of American pop vocals forever." She co-wrote only a few songs, but several of them have become jazz standards, notably "God Bless the Child", "Don't Explain", "Fine and Mellow", and "Lady Sings the Blues". She also became famous for singing "Easy Living", "Good Morning Heartache", and "Strange Fruit", a protest song which became one of her standards and was made famous with her 1939 recording.
Billie Holiday was born Eleanora Fagan on April 7, 1915, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Sarah Julia "Sadie" Fagan (née Harris). Her father, Clarence Halliday (Holiday), a musician, did not marry or live with her mother. Her mother had moved to Philadelphia when thirteen, after being ejected from her parents' home in Sandtown-Winchester, Baltimore for becoming pregnant. With no support from her own parents, Holiday's mother arranged for the young Holiday to stay with her older married half sister, Eva Miller, who lived in Baltimore.

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Common (entertainer)
Lonnie Rashid Lynn, Jr. (born March 13, 1972), better known by his stage name Common (previously Common Sense), is an American hip-hop artist and actor.
Common debuted in 1992 with the album Can I Borrow a Dollar? and maintained a significant underground following into the late 1990s, after which he gained notable mainstream success through his work with the Soulquarians. His first major-label album, Like Water for Chocolate, received widespread critical acclaim and tremendous commercial success His first Grammy award was in 2003 for Best R&B Song for "Love of My Life (An Ode to Hip-Hop)" with Erykah Badu. Its popularity was matched by May 2005's Be, which was nominated in the 2006 Grammy Awards for Best Rap Album. Common was awarded his second Grammy for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group, for "Southside" (featuring Kanye West), from his July 2007 album Finding Forever. His best-of album, Thisisme Then: The Best of Common, was released on November 27, 2007.
Common has also initiated a burgeoning acting career, starring significant roles in such films as Smokin' Aces, Street Kings, American Gangster, Wanted, Terminator Salvation, Date Night, Just Wright, Happy Feet Two, and New Year's Eve. He also narrated the award-winning documentary Bouncing Cats, about one man's efforts to improve the lives of children in Uganda through hip-hop/b-boy culture. Common currently appears in Hell on Wheels, a dramatic television series on AMC that debuted in November 2011.

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Common (rapper)
Lonnie Rashid Lynn, Jr. (born March 13, 1972), better known by his stage name Common (previously Common Sense), is an American hip-hop artist and actor.
Common debuted in 1992 with the album Can I Borrow a Dollar? and maintained a significant underground following into the late 1990s, after which he gained notable mainstream success through his work with the Soulquarians. His first major-label album, Like Water for Chocolate, received widespread critical acclaim and tremendous commercial success His first Grammy award was in 2003 for Best R&B Song for "Love of My Life (An Ode to Hip-Hop)" with Erykah Badu. Its popularity was matched by May 2005's Be, which was nominated in the 2006 Grammy Awards for Best Rap Album. Common was awarded his second Grammy for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group, for "Southside" (featuring Kanye West), from his July 2007 album Finding Forever. His best-of album, Thisisme Then: The Best of Common, was released on November 27, 2007.
Common has also initiated a burgeoning acting career, starring significant roles in such films as Smokin' Aces, Street Kings, American Gangster, Wanted, Terminator Salvation, Date Night, Just Wright, Happy Feet Two, and New Year's Eve. He also narrated the award-winning documentary Bouncing Cats, about one man's efforts to improve the lives of children in Uganda through hip-hop/b-boy culture. Common currently appears in Hell on Wheels, a dramatic television series on AMC that debuted in November 2011.

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Egyptians
Egyptians (Egyptian Arabic: مَصريين IPA: [mɑsˤɾejˈjiːn]; Arabic: مِصريّون‎ miṣriyūn) are the inhabitants and citizens of Egypt sharing a common culture and a dialect of Arabic.
Egyptian identity is closely tied to geography. The population of Egypt is concentrated in the lower Nile Valley, the small strip of cultivable land stretching from the First Cataract to the Mediterranean and enclosed by desert both to the east and to the west. This unique geography has been the basis of the development of Egyptian society since antiquity. If regarded as a single ethnic group, the Egyptian people constitute one of the world's largest.
The daily language of the Egyptians is the local variety of Arabic, known as Egyptian Arabic or Masri, Also a sizable minority of Egyptian speak Sa'idi Arabic in Upper Egypt. Egyptians are predominantly adherents of Sunni Islam with a Shia minority and a significant proportion who follow native Sufi orders. A sizable minority of Egyptians belong to the Coptic Orthodox Church, whose liturgical language, Coptic, is the last stage of the indigenous Egyptian language.

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Flying Lotus
Flying Lotus (born Steven Ellison) is an experimental multi-genre music producer from Winnetka, California. His debut album, 1983, was released on Plug Research Records in 2006. He produced much of the bumper music on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim programming block, for which he is uncredited, and he also contributed remixes for fellow Plug Research artists including Mia Doi Todd. He is often referred to as FlyLo by fans and critics. His grandmother was songwriter Marilyn McLeod. He is the great-nephew of the late Alice Coltrane, whose husband was John Coltrane. He is also the cousin of musician Ravi Coltrane.
In 2007, he announced that he signed with Warp Records. Following his Warp debut, the six-track Reset EP, he quickly became one of the label’s cornerstone artists and released his second album, titled Los Angeles, on June 10, 2008. In 2008, Flying Lotus also remixed "Reckoner" from Radiohead's album In Rainbows. His third album, Cosmogramma, was released on May 3, 2010, in the UK and May 4, 2010, in the US. In January 2011, Cosmogramma won in the Dance/Electronica Album category in the 10th Annual Independent Music Awards.

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J Dilla
James Dewitt Yancey (February 7, 1974 – February 10, 2006), better known by the stage names J Dilla, J Mukandila and Jay Dee, was an American record producer who emerged from the mid-1990s underground hip hop scene in Detroit, Michigan. According to his obituary at NPR.org, he "was one of the music industry's most influential hip-hop artists, working for big-name acts like A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Busta Rhymes and Common."
Renowned producer Pete Rock placed J Dilla on his list of the top five producers of all time, while the editors of About.com ranked him #15 on their list of the Top 50 Hip-Hop Producers. Andy Kellman of Allmusic stated that—by 2004, after being active for well over a decade as a producer—J Dilla had accomplished enough to be considered "an all-time great." J Dilla made the "Elite 8" in the search for The Greatest Hip-Hop Producer of All Time by Vibe. Also, The Source placed him on its list of the 20 greatest producers in the magazine's twenty-year history.
Yancey's career began slowly. He has now become highly regarded, most notably for the production of critically acclaimed albums by Ghostface Killah, Raekwon, Common, Busta Rhymes, A Tribe Called Quest, The Pharcyde, and Erykah Badu. He was a member of Slum Village and produced their acclaimed debut album Fan-Tas-Tic (Vol. 1) and their follow-up Fantastic, Vol. 2.

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James Poyser
James Poyser (born January 31,) in Sheffield, England is a multi-Grammy winning songwriter, musician and multi-platinum producer.
Poyser has written and produced songs for various legendary and award-winning artists including Erykah Badu, Mariah Carey, John Legend, Lauryn Hill, Common, Anthony Hamilton, D'Angelo, The Roots, and Keyshia Cole.
During his career, Poyser has toured, and played live with such distinctive artists as Jay-Z, The Roots, Erykah Badu, and Aretha Franklin. An active session musician, he has contributed to the works of Adele, Norah Jones, Eric Clapton, Joss Stone, Ziggy Marley, Macy Gray and Femi Kuti.
Poyser received a Grammy for Best R&B Song in 2003 for co-writing Erykah Badu and Common's hit "Love Of My Life." James was also the executive producer on Badu's highly celebrated albums, Mama's Gun and Worldwide Underground.
A longtime collaborator and member of The Roots, James has joined them on stage, performing live as the houseband for NBC's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

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Jann Wenner
Jann Simon Wenner (born January 7, 1946) is the co-founder and publisher of the music and politics biweekly Rolling Stone, as well as the owner of Men's Journal and Us Weekly magazines.
Wenner was born in New York City and grew up in a secular Jewish family.^{[citation needed]} His parents divorced in 1958, and he and his sisters, Kate and Merlyn, were sent to boarding schools to live. He graduated from high school at Chadwick School in 1963 and went on to attend the University of California, Berkeley. Before dropping out of Berkeley in 1966, Wenner was active in the Free Speech Movement and produced the column "Something's Happening" in the student-run newspaper, The Daily Californian. With the help of his mentor, San Francisco Chronicle jazz critic Ralph J. Gleason, Wenner landed a job at Ramparts, a high-circulation muckraker, where Gleason was a contributing editor and Wenner worked on the magazine's spinoff newspaper.
In 1967, Wenner and Gleason founded Rolling Stone in San Francisco. To get the magazine off the ground, Wenner borrowed $7,500 from family members and from the family of his soon-to-be wife, Jane Schindelheim. In the summer following the start of the magazine, Wenner and Schindelheim were married in a small Jewish ceremony.

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Jay Electronica
Timothy Elpadaro Thedford (born September 19, 1976), better known by his stage name Jay Electronica, is an American hip hop recording artist and record producer, currently based in London, United Kingdom. Jay Electronica first gained significant attention after the release of the musical composition Act I: Eternal Sunshine (the pledge), made available on a MySpace page in 2007. It is fifteen continuous minutes of music, without drums, built from Jon Brion's soundtrack to the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. In late 2009 he released two songs, both produced by Just Blaze, "Exhibit A (Transformations)" and "Exhibit C" the latter of which won a Sucker Free Summit Award for Instant Classic. On November 12, 2010, it was announced Jay Electronica had become an official member of Jay-Z's Roc Nation record label.

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Jill Scott
Dependency or dependent may refer to:
without one, in the case of independent forms
Among monastic orders, the term denotes the relation of a monastic community with a newer community which it has established elsewhere. The relationship can be that of an abbey with a priory composed of the monks who originated from the first house. In that situation, the abbot remains the ultimate authority for the affairs of the dependent priory, which is considered an extension of the founding house. This relationship will end at such time as the daughter community might become fully autonomous and an abbey in its own right.
Smaller monasteries of nuns within a monastic congregation can make a bond with a monastery of monks within the same division of the Order, whereby the two are affiliated, and the monks guarantee pastoral care of the nuns. In this sense, the women's house is considered a dependency on that of the men.

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John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy pronunciation (help·info) (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963.
After military service as commander of the Motor Torpedo Boats PT-109 and PT-59 during World War II in the South Pacific, Kennedy represented Massachusetts's 11th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1947 to 1953 as a Democrat. Thereafter, he served in the U.S. Senate from 1953 until 1960. Kennedy defeated then Vice President and Republican candidate Richard Nixon in the 1960 U.S. presidential election. He was the youngest elected to the office, at the age of 43, the second-youngest President (after Theodore Roosevelt), and the first person born in the 20th century to serve as president. Kennedy is the only Catholic president, and is the only president to have won a Pulitzer Prize. Events during his presidency included the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the building of the Berlin Wall, the Space Race, the African American Civil Rights Movement, and early stages of the Vietnam War.

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Joi (singer)
Joi Elaine Gilliam (born January 25, 1972), better known by her stage name Joi, is an American R&B/Rock singer, songwriter and record producer associated with the Dungeon Family collective based in Atlanta, Georgia, and as such often performs with OutKast, the Organized Noize production team, and Goodie Mob(her ex-husband, Big Gipp, is a member of the latter group). her signature songs include "Sunshine & The Rain", "Lick" & "Freedom".
Joi is the daughter of NFL Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Joe Gilliam and granddaughter of Tennessee State Tigers football coach Joe Gilliam, Sr.
In 1994, Joi released her debut album, The Pendulum Vibe, on EMI with Dallas Austin as the executive producer. While the lead single "Sunshine & The Rain" received heavy airplay on video outlets such as VH1 & MTV, the single failed to become a hit and album sales were disappointing, selling only 76,000 copies in the U.S. Even though album sales were low, Joi received widespread praise from critics, some calling her the new "Madonna". Madonna herself was so impressed with Pendulum Vibe that she changed the direction of her 1994 album Bedtime Stories. Madonna was also responsible for assisting Joi in becoming the first black model in a major Calvin Klein print ad campaign. While Joi was receiving heavy media attention she released 2 more singles: I Found My Niche and Freedom. During this time, Joi's personal and musical style was the first to be dubbed as "neo-soul".

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Kedar Massenburg
Kedar Massenburg is an American record producer and record label executive, who was the president of Motown Records from 1997 to 2004. Massenburg is the current president and CEO of Kedar Entertainment. Massenburg is best known for bringing Erykah Badu to fame, and for coining the term "neo soul" to describe Badu's sound and that of several like-minded artists.
Kedar was born in 1963 and is the son of a single parent in Flatbush neighborhood, Brooklyn, New York. Massenburg is a 1981 graduate of Erasmus Hall High School. He is also a 1985 graduate of Central State University in Ohio. In college, Massenburg had his eye on the music business. After college, Massenburg spent several years in marketing positions, including two years as a district manager for Pepsico (maker of Pepsi Cola), and more than a year with SmithKline Beecham Clinical Labs Pharmaceuticals. But he still had his eye on the entertainment world. He was saving money for law school, having noticed a relationship between the worlds of popular music and the law. "One of the reasons I wanted to be a lawyer is I realized that everything in this business is controlled by legal documents and contracts," Massenburg recalled during an interview with Black Enterprise Massenburg graduated from University of North Carolina Law School, Chapel Hill, North Carolina having completed a project while he was there on the legal problems involved in developing a home-based business. In 1995, he established Kedar Entertainment, originating out of his New York home, with a $1,700 outlay from his own pocket and consisted of a desk set, fax machine, copier, and portable phone. He became President and CEO. Involved in artist management, he directed the career of the pioneering rap group Stetsasonic for a time.

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Madlib
Otis Jackson Jr. (born October 24, 1973) in Oxnard, California, known professionally as Madlib, is a Los Angeles-based DJ, multi-instrumentalist, rapper, and music producer. Known under a plethora of pseudonyms, he is one of the most prolific and critically acclaimed hip hop producers of the 2000s and has collaborated with a myriad hip hop artists, including The Alkaholiks, Mos Def, De La Soul, Ghostface Killah, Talib Kweli, A.G., MF DOOM (as Madvillain), and the late J Dilla (as Jaylib). He is also the one man force behind the ensemble Jazz collective, Yesterdays New Quintet. Madlib has described himself as a "DJ first, producer second, and MC last," and he has done several projects as a DJ, mixer, or remixer.
Madlib was born in Oxnard, California to musician parents Otis Jackson, Sr. and Dora Sinesca Jackson. He was raised in Oxnard, and currently works in Los Angeles. He began making music with the rap group Lootpack in the early 1990s. After his father started an independent label Crate Diggas Palace (CDP) Records in 1996 to promote Madlib and his CDP crew, including younger sibling Oh No and released an EP "Ill Psyche Move," Lootpack caught the attention of Peanut Butter Wolf, founder of the Stones Throw Records label. They released two singles and a full-length album on the Stones Throw imprint in 1999. Madlib also worked with rap group Tha Alkaholiks for several albums. In early 2000, Madlib released Madlib Invazion, a remix album on vinyl on Stones Throw.

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Mark Ronson
Mark Daniel Ronson (born 4 September 1975) is an English DJ, musician, music producer, artist and co-founder of Allido Records. He currently works with his band under the music alias of Mark Ronson & The Business Intl.
While his debut album Here Comes the Fuzz failed to make an impact on the charts, his second album, Version included three top ten hits and won Ronson a Brit Award for Best British Male Artist in 2008. His third studio album, Record Collection, was released on 27 September 2010.
Ronson was born at the Wellington Hospital, St John's Wood, to writer/socialite Ann Dexter-Jones and one-time band manager and real estate entrepreneur Laurence Ronson. His parents are of Ashkenazi Jewish descent, with ancestors from Austria, Russia, and Lithuania, and Ronson was brought up in Conservative Judaism. Ronson's family name was originally Aaronson, but his grandfather Henry Ronson changed it to Ronson. Ronson is the nephew of property tycoon Gerald Ronson. Ronson is related to British Conservative politicians Sir Malcolm Rifkind and Leon Brittan, as well as Odeon Cinemas founder Oscar Deutsch. Ronson has twin sisters who are two years younger than him, Charlotte Ronson, a fashion designer, and Samantha Ronson, a singer and DJ. Ronson also has five younger half-siblings. Alexander and Annabelle, through his mother's remarriage to Mick Jones as well as Henrietta, David and Joshua, through his father's remarriage to model Michele First. After his parents broke up, his mother married Foreigner guitarist Mick Jones, which contributed to a childhood surrounded by music.

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Mos Def
Dante Terrell Smith (born December 11, 1973) is an American actor and MC, known by the stage names Mos Def ( /ˌmoʊsˈdɛf/) and Yasiin Bey. He started his hip hop career in a group called Urban Thermo Dynamics, after which he appeared on albums by Da Bush Babees and De La Soul. With Talib Kweli, he formed the duo Black Star, which released the album Black Star in 1998. He was a major force in late 1990s underground hip hop while with Rawkus Records. As a solo artist he has released the albums Black on Both Sides in 1999, The New Danger in 2004, True Magic in 2006, and The Ecstatic in 2009.
Although he was initially recognized for his musical output, since the early 2000s, Mos Def's screen work has established him as one of only a handful of rappers who has garnered critical acclaim for his acting work. He is well known for his portrayal of Brother Sam in the American drama series Dexter. Mos Def has also been active in several social and political causes.
He was born Dante Terrell Smith in Brooklyn, New York City, the son of Sheron Smith and Abdul Rahman. He was raised by his mother in Brooklyn; his father lived in New Jersey. While his father was initially a member of the Nation of Islam and later an active member in the community of Imam Warith Deen Mohammed, who merged into mainstream Islam from the Nation, Mos Def was not exposed to Islam until the age of 13. At 19, he took his shahada, the Muslim declaration of faith. He is friends with Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest.

wn.com/Mos_Def
Pino Palladino
Pino Palladino (born 17 October 1957) is a Welsh bass guitarist who gained fame playing primarily rock and roll, blues rock, and rhythm and blues music, although he has been lauded for his ability to play most genres of popular music, including jazz, neo soul, and funk. His career has spanned several ensembles, including the John Mayer Trio and The RH Factor, a band mixing elements of soul, jazz and R&B, which he formed with jazz trumpeter Roy Hargrove. He was also Pete Townshend's and Roger Daltrey's first choice to fill the position left by John Entwistle as the bassist for The Who. Adding to an eclectic grasp and melodic approach on his instrument, he has become one of the most sought-after session players on the bass and has played on a large number of recordings by some of the world's most successful entertainers, in part, by mastering a variety of techniques on both his late 1970s fretless Music Man StingRay bass guitar and, later in his career, adding fretted Fender Precision and Jaguar basses. His playing has earned him custom instruments bearing his name.

wn.com/Pino_Palladino
Q-Tip (rapper)
Kamaal Ibn John Fareed (born Jonathan Davis on April 10, 1970), better known by his stage name Q-Tip, is an American entertainer from St. Albans, Queens, New York, part of the critically acclaimed group A Tribe Called Quest. John Bush of Allmusic called him "the best rapper/producer in hip-hop history," while editors of About.com placed him on their list of the Top 50 Hip-Hop Producers, as well as placing him on their list of the Top 50 MCs of Our Time (1987–2007), making him the only rapper/producer on the list.
Born Jonathan Davis on April 10, 1970 in Harlem, he converted to Islam in the mid-1990s, and changed his name to Kamaal Ibn John Fareed. He moved to St. Albans, Queens as a child. As referenced in the song "Check the Rhime", he mostly resided at Linden Boulevard. His father was from Montserrat, a British territory in the eastern Caribbean. His mother is an African-American from Alabama. His sister, Gwen, is eight years older than he is. He attended Murry Bergtraum High School in Manhattan, New York. According to Fareed, he was given his stage name by Afrika Baby Bam of Jungle Brothers, which he used as a replacement for his prior name, MC Love Child. He has also said that the Q in Q-Tip stands for Queens and he is often referred to as Tip, which later caused problems when a Southern rapper, now known as T.I., signed to Arista Records and attempted to use the stage name Tip, which was later shortened to T.I. to avoid confusion with his then-labelmate Q-Tip. Throughout his career, he also called himself "The Abstract". He said that one of the main people in his life that inspired him was his childhood friend, Mohammed Sead.

wn.com/Q-Tip_(rapper)
Queen Latifah
Dana Elaine Owens (born March 18, 1970), better known by her stage name Queen Latifah, is an American singer, rapper, and actress. Her work in music, film and television has earned her a Golden Globe award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, two Image Awards, a Grammy Award, six additional Grammy nominations, an Emmy Award nomination and an Academy Award nomination.
Latifah was born, and primarily raised, in East Orange, New Jersey. She is the daughter of Rita (née Bray), a teacher at Irvington High School (her daughter's alma mater), and Lancelot Owens, Sr., a police officer, her parents divorced when Latifah was ten. Latifah was raised in the Baptist church and attended Catholic school in Newark, New Jersey. Her stage name, Latifah (لطيفة laţīfa), meaning "delicate" and "very kind" in Arabic, she found in an Islamic book of names when she was eight. Always a tall girl, the 5'10" Latifah was a power forward on her high school basketball team. She performed the number "Home" from the musical The Wiz in a high school play. She is of African American and Native American ancestry.

wn.com/Queen_Latifah
Roy Hargrove
Roy Anthony Hargrove (born October 16, 1969) is an American jazz trumpeter. He won worldwide notice after winning two Grammy Awards for differing types of music, in 1997, and in 2002. Hargrove has played primarily with jazz musicians with stellar careers, from Wynton Marsalis to Herbie Hancock.
Hargrove is the bandleader of the progressive group the RH Factor, which combines elements of jazz, funk, hip-hop, soul, and gospel music. Its members include Chalmers "Spanky" Alford, Pino Palladino, James Poyser, Jonathan Batiste and Bernard Wright.
Hargrove was born October 16, 1969 in Waco, Texas, to parents who early in his childhood discovered his musical potential, and with lessons on the trumpet, was discovered as a potential jazz talent when trumpet player Wynton Marsalis visited his high school, Dallas's Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. One of his influences was saxophone player David "Fathead" Newman, who performed in Ray Charles' Band at Hargrove's junior high school.

wn.com/Roy_Hargrove
The D.O.C.
Tracy Lynn Curry (born June 10, 1968), primarily known by his stage name The D.O.C., is an American rapper from Dallas, Texas. In addition to a solo career, he was a member of the hip hop group Fila Fresh Crew, and a creative force behind the gangsta rap group N.W.A, where he co-wrote many of their releases. He has also semi-frequently worked with Dr. Dre, who is one of the founders of N.W.A and produced two of his solo albums.
After Fila Fresh Crew split up in 1988, The D.O.C. went on to pursue a successful solo career. In 1989, he released his debut album, No One Can Do It Better, which reached number-one on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart for two weeks and spawned two number one hits on the Hot Rap Songs chart: "It's Funky Enough" and "The D.O.C. & The Doctor". The album went platinum five years after its release. Months after the release of No One Can Do It Better, The D.O.C. almost died when a car accident resulted in crushing his larynx, permanently changing his voice. Since his recovery, he has released two more albums, Helter Skelter and Deuce, both released 7 years apart. Since 2008, The D.O.C. has been working on new material for his fourth album Voices through Hot Vessels.

wn.com/The_D.O.C.
The Ummah
The Ummah was a music production collective, composed of members Q-Tip and Ali Shaheed Muhammad of A Tribe Called Quest, and the late Jay Dee (now known as J Dilla) of the Detroit-based group Slum Village. Occasional members included Raphael Saadiq, and D'Angelo. In addition to producing nearly the entirety of A Tribe Called Quest's fourth and fifth album, the Ummah provided backing tracks for a notable array of hip hop and contemporary R&B artists, including Busta Rhymes, Whitney Houston, Keith Murray, the Brand New Heavies, Janet Jackson, and Jon B. The group was so named because two of its members (Tip and Ali) are devout Muslims. The word "ummah" is Arabic for "community", "nation", or "brotherhood".
The collective took shape around 1995, when veteran keyboardist Amp Fiddler introduced Jay Dee (who at the time was shopping for a deal for his group) to Q-Tip. Tip was impressed enough by Jay Dee's soulful productions to invite him as an addition to Tribe's music-production team, which until then consisted of Tip and Ali Shaheed.

wn.com/The_Ummah

Erykah Badu - On & On

published: 16 Jun 2009

author: ErykahBaduVEVO

Erykah Badu - Window Seat

published: 02 Apr 2010

author: ErykahBaduVEVO

Erykah Badu feat. Common - Love Of My Life

High Quality DVD Rip...

published: 11 Apr 2009

author: ghettoonline

Erykah Badu - Didn't Cha Know

published: 16 Jun 2009

author: ErykahBaduVEVO

Erykah Badu - Bag Lady

published: 16 Jun 2009

author: ErykahBaduVEVO

The Roots - You Got Me ft. Erykah Badu

published: 07 Oct 2009

author: TheRootsVEVO

Erykah Badu - Honey

published: 16 Jun 2009

author: ErykahBaduVEVO

Erykah Badu - Other Side Of The Game

published: 16 Jun 2009

author: ErykahBaduVEVO

Erykah Badu- On & On with Lyrics

Ohh, my, my, my I'm feelin' high My money's gone I'm all alone To much to see, the world k...

published: 18 Jun 2009

author: JerrellWilliams12

Erykah Badu - Baduizm - On & On, Appletree & Otherside Of The Game

Erykah Badu - Baduizm...

published: 08 May 2011

author: jevonparker23

My Morning Jacket - Tyrone feat. Erykah Badu Unstaged

Louisville Palace 5/31/11...

published: 02 Jun 2011

author: FCMahgeetah

Erykah Badu next life time

...

published: 02 Sep 2009

author: TheMaxvesuvio

no more trouble-erykah badu-tributo bob marley

no more trouble in the world, so beautiful...

published: 03 Feb 2007

author: carlos santos

erykah badu - the healer

fan video for the healer taken from new album New Amerykah Part One (4th World War) tonspi...

published: 13 Mar 2008

author: eijomian

Erykah Badu - Gone Baby, Don't be Long

From the album New Amerykah Part Two: Return of the Ankh Directed by: Flying Lotus Post-P...

published: 09 Feb 2011

author: beeple

Flying Lotus - Small Moments (Until The Quiet Comes previews)

Previews from new Flying Lotus album 'Until The Quiet Comes', out October 1st/2nd on Warp ...

published: 14 Sep 2012

author: Warp Records

Flying Lotus - Putty Boy Strut (Until The Quiet Comes, new album out October 1st/2nd)

Preorder album now at http://flying-lotus.com/until-the-quiet-comes/ Flying Lotus' 'Until...

published: 19 Sep 2012

author: Warp Records

OUT MY MIND JUST IN TIME 1

MOVEMENT 1 Directed by Erykah Badu, Directors of Photography by Coodie & Chike...

published: 25 May 2011

author: Creative Control

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photo: AP / Pablo Martinez Monsivais

U.S. President Barack Obama, right, waves as he embraces Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, left, after addressing members of the media at Suu Kyi's residence in Yangon, Myanmar, Monday, Nov. 19, 2012.

Burma's and America's Ongoing Storms

WorldNews.com

20 Nov 2012

Article by WN.com Correspondent Dallas Darling President Barack Obama's whirlwind tour of southeast Asia and meetings with dignitaries will have to walk a tightrope between either appearing to endorse military juntas or truly being committed to ongoing pro-democracy movements. Specifically at issue is Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi, a democratic advocate...(size: 5.0Kb)

photo: AP / Sebastian D'souza

FILE - In this Nov. 26, 2008 file photo, Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, the accused gunman walks at the Chatrapathi Sivaji Terminal railway station in Mumbai, India.

India hangs gunman from 2008 Mumbai attack

Herald Tribune

21 Nov 2012

MUMBAI, India - India executed the lone surviving gunman from the 2008 terror attack on Mumbai early Wednesday, India's home ministry said. Ajmal Kasab, a Pakistani citizen, was one of 10 gunmen who rampaged through the streets of India's financial capital in November 2008, killing 166 people. Kasab was hung at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday at a jail in...(size: 4.5Kb)

photo: AP / Melanie Gouby

People walk past as M23 rebel soldier's take positions near the Heal Africa hospital in the center of Goma, Congo, Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2012.

DR Congo soldiers surrender to M23

Al Jazeera

21 Nov 2012

Hundreds of government soldiers and police in the Democratic Republic of Congo have surrendered to rebels at a stadium in Goma, Al Jazeera's Nazanine Moshiri has reported from the scene. The M23 rebel group, believed to be backed by Rwanda seized the strategic, provincial capital of Goma in eastern Congo on Tuesday, home to more than 1 million...(size: 18.7Kb)

photo: AP / Hatem Moussa

Smoke and fire are seen from an explosion by a high rise housing media organizations in Gaza City, Monday, Nov. 19, 2012. It

Israel ‘prepared to invade Gaza’

Independent online (SA)

19 Nov 2012

Gaza/Jerusalem - Israel bombed dozens of targets in the Gaza Strip on Monday and said that while it was prepared to step up its offensive by sending in troops, it preferred a diplomatic solution that would end Palestinian rocket fire. Mediator Egypt said a deal for a truce to end the fighting could be close. The leader of Hamas said it was up to...(size: 4.1Kb)

photo: UN / Logan Abassi

Hurricane Sandy passed to the west of Haiti on 25 October, 2012, causing heavy rains and strong winds, flooding homes and overflowing rivers. A woman walks through a flooded market in Port-au-Prince.

UN says carbon cuts too slow to curb dangerous warming

BBC News

21 Nov 2012

A report by the UN says global attempts to curb emissions of CO2 are falling well short of what is needed to stem dangerous climate change. The UN's Environment Programme says greenhouse gases are 14% above where they need to be in 2020 for temperature rises this century to remain below 2C. The authors say this target is still technically...(size: 3.5Kb)

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Live From New York: Duncan Sheik sifts through British hits of the 1980s at Gramercy Theater

New York Daily News

22 Nov 2012

Duncan Sheik Fri. 8 p.m. Gramercy Theater, 127 E. 23rd St., (212) 614-6847 On his latest disc, and tour, Duncan Sheik narrows his nostalgia to a sliver of the ’80s. He inhabits the British touchstones of the time, through songs by the likes of New Order, The Cure, Depeche Mode and The Smiths. Even when they’ve got strong beats, or enlivening riffs,...(size: 2.6Kb)

Sonnie Badu Tours Churches Ahead of December 1 Concert

Peace FM Online

22 Nov 2012

Ghanaian-international gospel singer Sonnie Badu has embarked on a tour of a number of churches with his singing ministry ahead of the December 1 Let Peace Rain Concert. The tour has seen Sonnie Badus singing ministry visiting the Redeemed Christian Church of God, the International Central Gospel Church, Asylum Down branch headed by gospel...(size: 2.5Kb)

Progress Report: The Flaming Lips

Stereogum

21 Nov 2012

Name: The Flaming Lips Progress Report: Steven Drozd talks about the Lips forthcoming studio album (their 15th!) and the joys of being loved in your own hometown. As a native Oklahoman, Iâm admittedly pretty biased when it comes to the Flaming Lips. Some of my earliest experiences with live music involved me underage-driving to Oklahoma City to...(size: 17.0Kb)

MOGO Festival Set For December

Peace FM Online

21 Nov 2012

The Music of Ghanaian Origin (MOGO), arguably Ghanas most authentic highlife musical celebration event, is set to thrill its numerous patrons once again with a parade of some of the nations celebrated highlife musicians. The event, organized by 97.3 Citi FM, is scheduled to take place on Saturday, December 1st, 2012 at the Accra International...(size: 3.6Kb)

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All Africa

20 Nov 2012

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Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne Causes Bomb Scare at Oklahoma City Airport

Rollingstone

20 Nov 2012

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Landlord Burns NDC Flag

Peace FM Online

20 Nov 2012

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D-Black & Van Vicker To Produce Real VERA Movie

Peace FM Online

20 Nov 2012

D-Black's hit song VERA is arguably the biggest song in the country at date and has been topping radio and t.v charts for a couple months. The story of D-Blacks heartbreak which spawned into a nationwide hit was written by D-Black and released earlier this year in April. Being a film school graduate, D-Black also scripted the entire music video...(size: 3.2Kb)

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The Guardian

19 Nov 2012

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Agyemang-Badu Upbeat On Chances Of Winning FIFA Goal Of The Year Award

Peace FM Online

19 Nov 2012

Ghana midfielder Emmanuel Agyemang-Badu believes he stands a good chance of winning the FIFA Goal of the Year award. The 21-year-olds sweetly struck volley outside the penalty area in the 1-1 draw with Guinea at the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations has been shortlisted alongside nine others for the prestigious FIFA Puskas Award. The Udinese...(size: 2.2Kb)

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Huffington Post

19 Nov 2012

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Peace FM Online

19 Nov 2012

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Ghanaian Players Abroad: Three Players Score

Peace FM Online

19 Nov 2012

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Erykah Badu
Hamburg/Germany 2002
Background information
Birth name	Erica Abi Wright
Also known as	Loretta Brown, Analog Girl in a Digital World, Fat Belly Bella, Medulla Oblongata
Born	(1971-02-26) February 26, 1971 (age 41) Dallas, Texas United States
Genres	R&B, neo soul, soul, funk, jazz, hip hop
Occupations	singer-songwriter, activist, Record producer, actress, DJ, rapper
Instruments	Vocals, keyboards, guitar, drums, drum machine
Years active	1991–present
Labels	Kedar, Universal, Motown, Puppy Love, Control Freaq
Associated acts	Soulquarians, The Cannabinoids, Madlib, The Roots, 9th Wonder, The Flaming Lips, Macy Gray, Mark Ronson, Stephen Marley, Dead Prez, Lenny Kravitz, Queen Latifah, Joi, Bahamadia, Angie Stone
Website	ErykahBadu.com

Erica Abi Wright (born February 26, 1971),^[1] better known by her stage name Erykah Badu /ˈɛrɨkə bɑːˈduː/, is a Grammy Award-winning American singer-songwriter, record producer, activist and actress. Her work includes elements from R&B, hip hop and jazz.^[1] She is best known for her role in the rise of the neo soul sub-genre, and for her eccentric, cerebral musical stylings and sense of fashion. She is known as the "First Lady of Neo-Soul" or the "Queen of Neo-Soul".

Early in her career, Badu was recognizable for wearing very large and colorful headwraps. For her musical sensibilities, she has often been compared to jazz great Billie Holiday. She was a core member of the Soulquarians, and is also an actress having appeared in a number of films playing a range of supporting roles in movies such as Blues Brothers 2000, The Cider House Rules and House of D. She also speaks at length in the documentary Before the Music Dies.

1 Early life
2 Career
- 2.1 Music
  - 2.1.1 Controversy over "Window Seat" video
- 2.2 Acting
3 Personal life
4 Discography
5 Tours
6 Filmography
7 See also
8 References
9 External links

Early life [link]

Erykah Badu was born Erica Abi Wright in Dallas, Texas, on February 26, 1971. Her mother raised her and her brother and sister alone; their father, William Wright, Jr., had deserted the family early in their lives. To provide for her family, the children's grandmother often helped looking after them while Erykah's mother, Kolleen Maria Gipson (Wright), performed as an actress in theatrical productions. Influenced by her mother, Erykah had her first taste of show business at the age of 4, singing and dancing with her mother at the Dallas Theatre Centre. Erykah Badu was the owner of Focal point in Dallas, Texas.

By the age of 14, Erykah was free-styling for a local radio station alongside such talent as Roy Hargrove. In her early youth, she decided to change the spelling of her name from Erica to Erykah, as she firmly believed her original name to be her slave name. The term 'kah' signifies the inner self. Badu is her favorite jazz scat sound and is also an African name for the 10th born child used for the Akan people in Ghana.^[2]

Upon graduating from Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, Badu went on to study theater at the historically black college Grambling State University. Concentrating on music full-time, she left the university in 1993 before graduating and took on several minimum wage jobs to support herself. She taught drama and dance to children at the South Dallas Cultural Center. Working and touring with her cousin, Robert "Free" Bradford, she recorded a 19-song demo, Country Cousins, which attracted the attention of Kedar Massenburg, who set Badu up to record a duet with D'Angelo, "Your Precious Love," and eventually signed her to a record deal with Universal Records.^[2]

Career [link]

Music [link]

Badu’s style is a prime illustration of Neo-Soul in that it focuses on the contemporary styles of the genres soul and hip hop and it sends out a deeper message as opposed to common R&B music. The songs in Badu’s album, “Baduizm” exemplifies her personal take on life. Her philosophy features ideologies from African influences, with fusions from the Nation of Islam and the Five Percent theologies, the complex views of the ancient Egyptians, and Southern African-American folk traditions. The majority of Badu’s music is greatly influenced by her beliefs of the NOI or the Nation of Islam and her African roots and heritage.^[3] Baduizm, Badu's highly acclaimed debut album, was released in early 1997 and debuted at #2 on the Billboard charts. Lead single "On & On" reached #12 on the singles charts in both the U.S. and UK. Badu received notice for her introspective lyrics and jazzy, bass-heavy sound, and was hailed as one of the leading lights of the burgeoning neo soul genre. Her particular style of singing drew many comparisons to Billie Holiday.^[4] Baduizm eventually went triple platinum and, along with "On & On," won Grammy Awards at the 1998 ceremonies.

Badu performing at the Jazz Reggae Festival, 2009

During that year, Badu became involved with rapper André 3000 of OutKast, with whom she had a child, Seven, who was born in 1997. Their relationship ended sometime in the late 90s. Badu recorded her first live album, Live, while pregnant with Seven, and the release of the recording coincided with the birth of her child.^[5] Live reached #4 on the Billboard charts, selling double platinum, and spawned another R&B hit single in "Tyrone", a song chiding a selfish, cheap, and inattentive boyfriend.^[6] Badu also collaborated with the Roots (who had previously handled production duties on a number of tracks on Baduizm) on their breakthrough 1999 release, Things Fall Apart. She was featured on the song "You Got Me", co-written by Jill Scott, which hit the top 40 and won a Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group.

After taking some time off to raise her child, Badu returned in 2000 with Mama's Gun, an album more organic in sound than her previous studio album, and primarily produced by the Soulquarians and noted bassist Pino Palladino. A remix of one of the album's songs, "Bag Lady", was issued as the first single and topped the R&B charts for seven weeks. The album was well-received, with the lyrical content winning notices from many publications who found some of her lyrics hard to decipher on her initial releases.^[7] Despite not charting as high as her first two albums, Mama's Gun was another platinum-selling success, and "Bag Lady" was nominated for a Grammy Award.

By 2000, Badu was in a romantic relationship with fellow Soulquarian Common, and "Love of My Life (An Ode to Hip-Hop)" was released as a collaboration between the two on the Brown Sugar soundtrack. "Love of My Life" hit #9 on the pop charts, topped the R&B listings, and Badu was awarded her fourth Grammy Award for the song in 2003.^[8]

After the release of Mama's Gun and "Love of My Life", Badu experienced writer's block.^[9] She hit the road throughout 2002 and much of 2003 on what she dubbed the "Frustrated Artist Tour", in search of inspiration to write and perform new material. The conclusion of the tour saw Badu head back to the studio with new material, and in September 2003, the Worldwide Underground album was released. More jam-oriented than any of her prior releases, Badu was quoted as saying that the release was designed to serve as one continuous groove.^[10] Worldwide Underground reached #3 on the Billboard charts and was certified gold not long after its release, and Badu received four further Grammy nominations for the album. Badu also contributed to Zap Mama's album Ancestry in Progress (2004), adding her vocals to the track "Bandy Bandy."

After almost four years and the birth of a daughter, Puma, it was revealed in 2007 that Badu had three albums in the works over the course of 2007 and 2008. "Honey", a new single produced by 9th Wonder, was leaked online in November 2007, and the new album, titled New Amerykah Part One (4th World War), was released on February 26, 2008. According to Nielsen Soundscan, New Amerykah Part One (4th World War) has sold 359,000 copies in the United States ^[11] Erykah Badu performed at the 10th annual Voodoo Experience in New Orleans the weekend before Halloween 2008.^[12]

Erykah Badu released her fifth studio album, New Amerykah Part Two (Return of the Ankh) on March 30, 2010.^[13]

An "Icon" CD series of Badu was released on August 31, 2010. It features 12 of the most favorable hits from different albums of Erykah Badu.

Badu is currently working on new material with Flying Lotus.^[14] Badu will also appear on the debut album by the supergroup, Rocketjuice and The Moon which is due for release in March 2012.^[15]

Controversy over "Window Seat" video [link]

Badu in 2008

On March 13, 2010,^[16] Badu filmed the video for her song "Window Seat", at Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas, which Badu wrote on her Twitter feed "was shot guerrilla style, no crew, 1 take, no closed set, no warning, 2 min., Downtown Dallas, then ran like hell."^[17] Without acquiring permission or permits from the city, Badu shed her clothes as she walked along a Dallas, Texas, sidewalk until she was nude at the site where President Kennedy was assassinated. A shot rang out as the song ended, and Badu's head jerked back and she fell to the ground. Children with their families could be seen nearby as Badu stripped.^[18] When asked about stripping nude in the presence of minors, Badu said, "I didn’t think about them until I saw them, and in my mind I tried to telepathically communicate my good intent to them. That’s all I could do, and I hoped they wouldn’t be traumatized."^[16] Badu also explained on The Wanda Sykes Show on April 3, 2010, that it was not her intention to insult the memory of the late President Kennedy, saying "My point was grossly misunderstood all over America. JFK is one of my heroes, one of the nation's heroes. John F. Kennedy was a revolutionary; he was not afraid to butt heads with America, and I was not afraid to show America my butt-naked truth."^[19] Coodie and Chike, directors of the Window Seat video, admitted they had bail money ready during filming if Badu was to be arrested.^[19] Badu said the video was a protest against “groupthink” and was inspired by Matt and Kim's music video Lessons Learned. Badu has also said she has "no regrets."^[16]

On Friday, April 2, 2010, Badu was charged with disorderly conduct, a class C misdemeanor, in relation to the music video. "Sgt. Warren Mitchell said Friday the decision to cite Badu for disorderly conduct — a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $500 — came after witness Ida Espinosa, 32, of Vernon, offered a sworn statement to police Thursday [April 1]. Espinosa declined to comment to The Associated Press on Friday."^[20] On April 28, 2010, Badu challenged the disorderly conduct charge by pleading not guilty rather than paying the fee by mail.^[21]^[22] On Friday, August 13, she pleaded, deferred adjudication, meaning that the final judgment in the situation has been deferred until a later time and paid the $500 ticket.

Acting [link]

Badu appeared in the films Blues Brothers 2000, The Cider House Rules, House of D, Before the Music Dies, and Dave Chappelle's Block Party. She is reported to have a leading role alongside Mos Def in the upcoming indie film, Bobby Zero, which tells a story of a struggling couple who hit rock bottom after Mos Def's character gives up his dream of artistic aspirations to pursue an advertising corporate job to make ends meet.^[23] She also appeared in scenes of the music video of Miko Marks' 2006 recording "Mama" and Common's video for "The Light" as well as making a special appearance on the sitcom Girlfriends. She was named the latest muse to fashion designer Tom Ford in 2008 as the face of his White Patchouli fragrance. Ford, also longtime friends with Badu, considered her the best choice for the campaign. “I have always considered her a true beauty … she just fits”, says Ford.^[24]

Personal life [link]

backstage Hamburg/Germany 2002

Badu splits her time between Dallas and Brooklyn, NY in her Fort Greene apartment.^[25] Badu has three children. Her eldest child is a son named Seven Sirius Benjamin, born in 1997, with André 3000. Their relationship inspired André 3000 to write the song Ms. Jackson. From 2000 to 2002, she dated rapper Common. On July 5, 2004, Badu gave birth to a daughter, Puma Sabti Curry, in her Dallas home; Puma's father is West Coast rapper The D.O.C., who is originally from Dallas, Texas. On February 1, 2009, Badu gave birth to her third child at home, a girl named Mars Merkaba Thedford, with her boyfriend of five years, rapper Jay Electronica.^[26] In attendance were her two children, Puma and Seven.^[27]

After her performance at the 2010 Soul Train Awards, pregnancy rumors spread because of her heavier appearance and her concealing attire.^{[citation needed]} It was said that Badu was pregnant for a fourth time, now by the police officer that allegedly arrested her during the production of her Window Seat music video.^{[citation needed]} Badu quickly dispelled the rumors via her Twitter account December 1, 2010 as she proclaimed "everyone knows I was NEVER ARRESTED for the window seat VIDEO nor put on probation.I only got A TICKET in the mail. and I am NOT PREGNANT".^[28]

Badu also remains an activist in her hometown of South Dallas.^{[citation needed]} Her charity organization, Beautiful Love Incorporated Non Profit Development (B.L.I.N.D. 501c3), provides community-driven development for inner-city youth through music, dance, theater and visual arts.^{[citation needed]}

In the publication VegNews Magazine, July–August 2008, Ms. Badu stated: "Vegan food is soul food in its truest form. Soul food means to feed the soul. And to me, your soul is your intent. If your intent is pure, you are pure".^[29]

Discography [link]

Main article: Erykah Badu discography

Studio albums

Baduizm (1997)
Mama's Gun (2000)
Worldwide Underground (2003)
New Amerykah Part One (4th World War) (2008)
New Amerykah Part Two (Return of the Ankh) (2010)

Live albums

Live (1997)

References [link]

^ ^a ^b Bush, John. "Erykah Badu > Biography". Allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/artist/p200306. Retrieved 2008-12-18.
^ ^a ^b Waldron, Clarence (2001). "Erykah Badu". Jet. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1355/is_4_99/ai_69202784.
^ Marlo David, African American Review, Vol. 41, No. 4,"Afrofuturism and Post-Soul Possibility in Black Popular Music" Post-Soul Aesthetic (Winter, 2007), pp. 695-707.
^ Rock On The Net: Erykah Badu;)
^ south by southwest festivals + conferences
^ "Erykah Badu plans to make music, money and babies". Ebony. 1998. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1077/is_n9_v53/ai_20847763.
^ Erykah Badu: Mama's Gun : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone
^ "Erykah Badu: on her career and her romance with Common - Biography". Ebony. 2003. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1077/is_11_58/ai_106700555.
^ Erykah Badu: Worldwide Underground - PopMatters Music Review
^ Net Music Countdown: Erykah Badu
^ http://www.billboard.com/#/news/erykah-badu-unveils-new-amerykah-part-ii-1004053193.story
^ Z, Chris (June 6, 2008). "Erykah Badu and Wyclef Join Voodoo Experience Bill". planeturban.com. http://www.planeturban.com.au/urban_news/event_news_erykah_badu_and_wyclef_join_voodoo_experience_bill. Retrieved July 18, 2008. ^{[dead link]}
^ Erykah Badu Puts Her Family To Work On New Amerykah, Part Two - News Story | Music, Celebrity, Artist News | MTV News
^ Flying Lotus Working With Erykah Badu
^ "Chili Peppers’ Flea and Blur’s Damon Albarn Talk New Group: Rocketjuice and the Moon". Gibson.com. http://www.gibson.com/en-us/Lifestyle/News/albarn-allen-flea-0104-2012/. Retrieved 2012-05-02.
^ ^a ^b ^c Hauk, Hunter.Badu speaks out about 'Window Seat' video DallasNews.com. 29 March 2010.
^ Erykah Badu Strips On Downtown Dallas Street For Music Video Kwtx.com. 30 March 2010.
^ Singer Strips Naked on Dallas' Grassy Knoll in New Video Myfoxdfw.com. 29 Mar 2010.
^ ^a ^b Hanek, Joel. Erykah Badu Defends 'Window Seat' On 'Wanda Sykes Show' MTV.com. 5 April 2010.
^ "Erykah Badu charged over Dallas nude video shoot". Boston.com. 2 April 2010. http://www.boston.com/ae/music/articles/2010/04/02/erykah_badu_charged_over_dallas_nude_video_shoot/.
^ "Singer Erykah Badu pleads not guilty to disorderly conduct charge". Dallas Morning News (DallasNews.com). 29 April 2010. http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/042910dnmetbadu.cd6f286.html.
^ Kreps, Daniel (30 April 2010). "Erykah Badu Pleads Not Guilty to "Window Seat" Charge". rollingstone.com. http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/14639/83328.
^ Erykah Badu To Star Opposite Mos Def In 'Bobby Zero' - BV on Movies
^ Erykah Badu is Tom Ford’s New Muse | The Maven Report
^ Ryzik, Melena (March 2, 2008). "The Mind of a One-Woman Multitude". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/02/arts/music/02ryzi.html. Retrieved May 2, 2010.
^ "Erykah Badu Twitters Third Child's Birth". Us Weekly. Wenner Media. 2009-02-02. http://www.usmagazine.com/news/erykah-badu-twitters-third-childs-birth. Retrieved 2009-02-04. ^{[dead link]}
^ Sheppard, Ferrari. "Eyrkah Budu Interview". http://www.stopbeingfamous.com/past-interviews/erykah-badu-interview-new-baby-steve-harvey-april-26-2009. Retrieved 2009-09-14.
^ "Topsy.com search results". topysy.com. http://topsy.com/s?order=date&mintime=1290690000&maxtime=1291640400&q=from%3Afatbellybella. Retrieved 26 April 2012.
^ Mickleborough, Lisa. "Erykah Badu". VegNews. http://www.vegnews.com/articles/page.do?catId=7&pageId=30. Retrieved December 26, 2011.

External links [link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Erykah Badu

v t e Erykah Badu

Studio albums	Baduizm (1997) Mama's Gun (2000) Worldwide Underground (2003) New Amerykah Part One (4th World War) (2008) New Amerykah Part Two (Return of the Ankh) (2010)

Other albums	Live ICON: The Best of Erykah Badu

Singles	"On & On" "Next Lifetime" "Otherside of the Game" "Appletree" "Tyrone" "You Got Me" "Southern Gul" "Bag Lady" "Didn't Cha Know? "Cleva" "Sweet Baby" "Love of My Life (An Ode to Hip-Hop)" "Danger" "Back in the Day (Puff)" "That Heat" "Get Live" "Honey" "Soldier" "The Healer" "Window Seat" "Turn Me Away (Get MuNNY)" "Gone Baby, Don't Be Long"

Tours	Baduizm Tour (1997) Mama's Gun Tour (2001) Frustrated Artist Tour (2003) Worldwide Underground Tour (2004) Sugar Water Festival Tour (2005) Summer Tour (2006) The Vortex Tour (2008) Jam Tour (2009) Out My Mind, Just In Time Tour (2010)

Filmography	Blues Brothers 2000 The Cider House Rules House of D Before the Music Dies Dave Chappelle's Block Party Girlfriends

Related articles	Discography Awards and nominations Soulquarians

v t e Soulquarians

?uestlove Bilal Common D'Angelo Erykah Badu J Dilla James Poyser Mos Def Pino Palladino Q-Tip Talib Kweli

Albums	Things Fall Apart (1999) Voodoo (2000) Like Water for Chocolate (2000) Mama's Gun (2000) 1st Born Second (2001) Phrenology (2002) Electric Circus (2002)

See also	Native Tongues Posse The Philadelphia Experiment The Ummah

Persondata
Name	Wright, Erica Abi
Alternative names	Erykah Badu
Short description	American singer
Date of birth	February 26, 1971
Place of birth	Dallas, Texas
Date of death
Place of death

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Badu, Erykah Filmography

Lyrics:

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Contents

Early life [link]

Career [link]

Music [link]

Controversy over "Window Seat" video [link]

Acting [link]

Personal life [link]

Discography [link]

Tours [link]

Filmography [link]

See also [link]

References [link]

External links [link]

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