Erykah Badu

Jet, Jan 8, 2001 by Clarence Waldron

TALKS ABOUT

* Breakup With Rap Star

* New Love

* Why She Believes She Is A Queen

* Pressures Of Recording Hit Album

Famed singer Erykah Badu is a woman who can be considered a "deep" soul sister.

A conversation with her yields the realization that she is as honest and serious as her innovative, thought-provoking and sometimes philosophical, soul music.

During a recent interview, the outspoken songstress talked frankly about everything that matters to her most: her painful breakup with rap star Dre (Andre Benjamin) of the hit group OutKast and how she has learned to fill that void with a new kind of love, why she believes she is a queen and she revealed the pressures of recording her current hit album, Mama's Gun, which features the No. 1 hit Bag Lady.

Reflecting on her breakup with her beau, who is also the father of her son, she notes: "We were together for three years and we have a 3-year-old son named Seven. We are still together as a family. We are not a functioning couple, but we are a family. So therefore, I am not a single mother. My son has both a father and a mother who are very responsible."

She reveals that the tune, Green Eyes on Mama's Gun is about her breakup. "It is very personal. It's a three-movement suite, 10 minutes long. I wrote that song in December 1998 and that was shortly after Dre and I decided to separate. It took such a big toll on my emotions that I had to write about it. And Dre thought it was important that I write about it as well. He said, `Yeah, you should write about it so other people can feel what we feel and know how that feels so they won't make the same judgment on themselves.' So we thought that it was important as artists that we use our outlet, music, and pray that our freedom of speech and art will aid someone else's growth."

The powerful tune details the stages of the breakup. "The first movement is called `Denial.' I was denying that I was even upset at all."

She continues, "The second movement is called `Acceptance?' with a question mark behind it. `Am I accepting this?' I was kind of starting to accept it. And the third movement is called `The Relapse.' You go through all these stages of heartache and getting over it. The Brother helped me through it is as much as he could," she laughs. "But that's something we have to do as adults. We can't make anybody else responsible for our feelings. I hope the song shares that bit of wisdom."

She loves OutKast's new album Stankonia with the hit Ms. Jackson, a tune about his baby's mama's mother.

"I am the mother of his first son, so it may have something to do with me," she admits. "He wanted to give the world something to think about baby's mama's mother and baby's daddy. We are very proud of him, my whole family. My mom just laughs about Ms. Jackson. She and Dre are really pretty cool; they talk."

In the tune, she explains that Dre is essentially saying, "`I apologize, my intentions were good. I never meant to make your daughter cry.' Nobody wants to do that. He is a very humble, good Brother. He is a really good person."

She has since turned her energy to her music. That, she says, has become her new love.

"I am dating my music right now. I am in love with my music and my son right now-and myself. I am kind of moving on through. I am not in a rush to jump right into a relationship," she admits. "That's not necessary for me to happy. All I need around me is good people, good friends, good healthy food and my child. That makes me more than happy."

Badu arrived on the music scene in 1997 with her debut album, Baduizm. With an elaborate headwrap and the elegance and confidence of an African queen, she ushered in a new look and sound in contemporary music. The Badu sound fuses jazz, R&B, and hip hop.

Her first album yielded the top hit singles, On and On, Next Lifetime and Other Side of the Game and sold 3 million copies. She followed up with a concert album Live! with the hit tune, Tyrone.

The 29-year-old singer-songwriter was born Erica Wright in Dallas. She performed onstage at age 4 with her mother, Kolleen Wright, a professional actress. She is the oldest of three and has a sister, Koko (Nayrok), 26, and brother, Eevin, 17. She changed her name to Erykah Badu as a teenager--"kah" for "inner self" and "ba-du" after the scat singing of great jazz vocalists.

She believes she is a queen--a queen who tries to bring meaningful, real music to her fans worldwide. "I am a non-conformist. All of my life I have been slightly to the left, a little different."

She points out, "The way I dress: I love adorning myself with my culture. And it is not a Black and White thing for me, but I am very interested in the Black community because there are a lot of professional artists and geniuses who dwell in that community who need to be uplifted in some kind of way."

She continues, "I want to be a different example of what a Black woman is, what a Black person is. I wear my headwrap because a headwrap is a crown, and I am a queen. A headwrap demands a certain amount of respect--it just does, and I am always headwrapped."