Mama's Gun is the second studio album by American R&B; and neo soul musician Erykah Badu, released November 21, 2000 on Motown Records. Recording sessions for the album took place from 1999 to 2000 at Electric Lady Studios in New York City. Mama's Gun encompasses such musical styles as jazz and soul, and it contains confessional lyrics by Badu, which cover themes of insecurity, social issues and personal relationships.

The album contains the single "Bag Lady", a top 10 Billboard hit, nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Female R&B; Vocal Performance and for Best R&B; Song. The song "Didn't Cha Know?" was also nominated for Best R&B; Song. Thematically the album explores topics regarding self-esteem, relationship breakdowns, and police brutality, and features a more eclectic sound than its predecessor. Rolling Stone magazine named it amongst its Top 10 Albums of 2000.

Conception

Background

Recording

Music

The album opens with the explosive, psychedelic, guitar-lead "Penitentiary Philosophy", which features a sample of Stevie Wonder's "Ordinary Pain", heavy drumming from Questlove, and guitar by Jef Lee Johnson. The song is an expression of what Badu sees as a state of mental imprisonment. She urges disillusionment and liberation from false beliefs: "Here's my philosophy/Livin' in a penitentiary/Brothers all on the corner/Tryin' to make believe/Turn around ain't got no pot to pee". The song features a twice-repeated breakdown section where she almost whispers her lyrics, as the music slowly builds up and launches back into the main groove. The following song, the spiritual "Didn't Cha Know", features ethnic-sounding percussion, wah-wahs, and emotive strings. The song was produced by Jay Dee with contributions from James Poyser. Jay Dee had been working with Common on his album but was yet to meet Badu, so the rapper arranged for the two to meet. She relates the song's creation:

It was the second single and garnered some unwanted attention when the source of its sample, jazz fusion band Tarika Blue, filed a suit seeking compensation for its release as thus. The case was settled out of court. The song "...& On" is a continuation of her 1997 hit "On & On" and, like that song, sees Badu waxing cryptically yet again, although she conscientiously teases her own mystic image when she sings "What good do your words do if they can't understand you? Don't go talkin' that shit, Badu". After this song, the album jumps into "Cleva", which begins with the line "this is how I look without make-up". Badu uses the song to challenge accepted standards of female values when she asks "She's cleva and I really wanna grow, but why come you're the last to know?". The issue of self-esteem is further explored on two other songs; the funk-jam "Booty", and the jazzy album version of "Bag Lady". On the latter, Badu uses the titular "bag lady" as a metaphor for a woman who carries emotional baggage over from her previous relationships and is unable to let anyone get close to her. She stresses the importance of obtaining closure when she sings: "Bag lady, you gon' hurt your back/Draggin' all them bags like that/I guess nobody ever told you/All you must hold on to is you". The controversial 1999 shooting of Guinea immigrant Amadou Diallo by the NYPD's Street Crimes Unit served as the basis for "A.D. 2000" (the abbreviation standing for Diallo's initials). Rather than singing a condemnation of the NYPD, as had most other artists who were incensed by the event, Badu chose to sing an elegy which, while noting the tragedy of Diallo's killing, also observes the furor over the circumstances, which she viewed as likely to be temporary: "No you won't be name'n no buildings after me/To go down dilapidated ooh/No you won't be name'n no buildings after me/My name will be misstated, surely". The song recalls other symbolic protest songs such as "Strange Fruit" by Billie Holiday, an artist with whom Badu has received some favorable comparisons. Mama's Gun contains two back-to-back love songs; the dreamy, astronomical ballad "Orange Moon", and the acoustic, reggae-tinged "In Love With You" - a duet between Badu and Stephen Marley.

The last song, and arguable centerpiece of the album, "Green Eyes", is a sprawling, three-part epic exploring the contradicting emotions of a woman trying to cope with a breakup. The first part, titled "Movement 1 (denial)", features piano by James Poyser, trumpets by Roy Hargrove, and sounds akin to the effect of being heard through a 1930s gramophone record player. It sees Badu singing in a soft bluesy baritone comparable to Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald. In this section of the song, Badu denies feeling hurt when she finds out that her former lover has a new partner. She sings: "My eyes are green/Cause I eat a lot of vegetables/It don't have nothing to do with your new friend". The second movement, dubbed "acceptance", features bass guitar, flutes, and piano and is a lot jazzier, featuring brush-stroke drums by Questlove. In this section she sings: "I can't remember the last time I felt this way about somebody/You've done something to my mind/And I can't control it/But I don't love you any more/Yes I do, I think/Loving you is wrong". In the third section, she finally succumbs to her emotions and reveals at once, feelings of regret, abandonment, and unfulfilled promises, as well as a yearning to rekindle an affair which almost certainly consumed her, and which she has yet to move on from: "Don't you want be strong with me?/You told me we could have a family/Want to run to me when you're down and low/But times get tough and there you go/Out the door, you wanna run again/Open your arms and you'll come back in/Wanna run cause you say you're afraid". Because of her highly publicized involvement with André Benjamin, many assumed that she was referring to their break-up in the song and also on her song "Tyrone", however both parties have stated that there is no animosity between them and that they are on good terms, and speak regularly (it is worth noting that "Tyrone" was recorded in 1997, while the pair were still an item). Benjamin responded to the rumors in the song "A Life in the Day of Benjamin André (Incomplete)", from the 2003 Outkast album, Speakerboxxx/The Love Below.

Reception

Commercial performance

The lead single from Mama's Gun was the "Cheeba Sac" mix of "Bag Lady", which, with its colorful, artsy music video, shot to #1 on the R&B; charts, and also into the Top 10 on the billboard charts. This remix of the song contained a sample from the Dr. Dre song "Xxplosive". The popularity of the song landed the album at #11 in the national charts when it was released four months later in October, 2000. This was a noticeable drop from Baduizm's peak chart position of #2, although the album sold strongly and had reached Platinum by late December the same year. Despite this, there were only two more singles released from the album, the latter of which received no music video and barely any promotion, although Badu herself did direct a rare video for "Penitentiary Philosophy", which was not released as a single.

Critical response

The A.V. Clubs Keith Phipps praised Badu's lyrical themes and the album's "deceptively simple arrangements, a lovely breakup suite ('Green Eyes'), and near-infinite replay value". Noted music critic, Robert Christgau (of the Village Voice), gave the album a rating of "A" and commented that "maybe her sources are autobiographical, but she’s here to inspire all black-identified women and the men who admire them." Noting the relatively lukewarm reception of the album when compared with Baduizm, Bill Meyer wrote for Ink Blot magazine that "it's everything we say we want in music: gutsy, introspective, innovative, bold, real in a way that few other albums even try to be--and yet nobody was talking about this record at the end of the year." Meyer was particularly vocal in his praise of Badu's artistry, boldly lauding Mama's Gun as an album that is "as good and important as all those soul and rock albums my friends say aren't made anymore: Talking Book, Court and Spark, Curtis, Darkness on the Edge of Town, What's Going On, Maggot Brain, all them." In closing he called Badu "the most important American musician working today". The New York Timess Jon Pareles named it the fifth best album of 2000.

Track listing

Notes

The track listing originally planned for this album was changed by Erykah Badu shortly before its release. Consequently, many compact discs bear the following tracklisting as had previously been planned:

#"Hey Sugah" #"Booty" #"Kiss Me On My Neck (Hesi)" #"Didn't Cha Know" #"My Life" #"... & On" #"Cleva" #"Props To The Lonely People" #"Time's A Wastin" #"A.D. 2000" #"Penitentiary Philosophy" #"Orange Moon" #"In Love With You" #"Bag Lady" #"Green Eyes"

;b. Special Edition releases The album's special edition re-release in 2000 contains "Bag Lady (Cheeba Sac Radio Edit)". It was also re-released in 2001 with a bonus disc of previously released material, remixes, and videos to single releases from the original album. The tracklisting is:

#"Tyrone (live)" 3.55 #"Hollywood" 5.35 #"Drama" 6.04 #"Your Precious Love" (featuring D'Angelo) 4.40 #"Bag Lady (Basement Boys - Afrocentric remix)" 8.22 #"Bag Lady (Enhanced video)" 4.08 #"Didn't Cha Know (Enhanced video)" 4.03

Early CD booklets have the lyrics to the songs which remain unreleased from this project. On later releases, the compact disc itself has a signed message from Erykah Badu which reads: "I changed the sequence at the last minute, peace."

Personnel

Chart history

Chart positions

Singles - Billboard (North America) {| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" style="width:550px;" |- !align="left"|Year !align="left"|Single !align="left"|Chart !align="left"|Position |- |align="left"|2000 |align="left"|"Bag Lady" |align="left"|Canadian Singles Chart |align="left"|6 |- |align="left"|2000 |align="left"|"Bag Lady" |align="left"|Hot R&B;/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks |align="left"|1 |- |align="left"|2000 |align="left"|"Bag Lady" |align="left"|The Billboard Hot 100 |align="left"|6 |- |align="left"|2001 |align="left"|"Didn't Cha Know" |align="left"|Hot R&B;/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks |align="left"|28 |- |align="left"|2001 |align="left"|"Cleva" |align="left"|Hot R&B;/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks |align="left"|77 |}

Chart procession and succession

References

External links

Category:2000 albums Category:Erykah Badu albums Category:Motown albums Category:Albums produced by Questlove Category:Albums produced by J Dilla Category:Albums produced by James Poyser Category:Albums recorded at Electric Lady Studios

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