Erykah Badu tells why it took 5 years for CD 'New Amerykah'

Jet, March 3, 2008 by Clarence Waldron

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Erykah Badu says she believes in "lifelines not deadlines."

She likes taking her time, getting it just right and letting Spirit dictate which way to go.

That's why her new CD, New Amerykah (Part One: The 4th World War), slated for release this week (Feb. 26), is her first full studio recording in five years.

"I'm more like an oven than a microwave," she explains to JET during an interview at her New York home.

"I don't quickly serve something up just because people expect me to. I serve it up when it is well done, cooked and ready. I go by the lifeline, not by the deadline. I believe in lifelines not deadlines. I do it when I feel it."

She explains, "Deadline seems like some kind of finalization of a thing. Lifeline is when it is born and it starts to live. A lifeline gives birth to something and giving birth is a process."

The outspoken soul artist also discusses everything from her music to her two children, her thoughts on marriage and what she is looking for in a man.

Badu, who turns 36 on the day of her CD's release, says foremost in her life are her children, Seven, 10 and Puma, 3. "My first job is being a mother. That comes before anything for me. And that helps me to be as creative as I am."

"They are very patient," she says of her children. "They are highly intelligent beings. They are different. Seven is humble and has a quiet character. He doesn't speak unless he has something to say, very much like his father, Andre [3000 of OutKast fame]."

Puma, she says, is "vivacious and creative. She is very much like her mother. She's me all over again, let my mother tell it," she laughs. "We have a good time." Her daughter's father is rapper The D.O.C.

"I want them to know they are spiritual beings first. Human beings second; man or woman, third; Black, White, or whatever, last. "Spirituality is first because when you can see through someone to the Spirit, you have more patience with them, you can identify with them. You become one with them. There's no separation of us as people."

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Badu, who splits her time between homes in Dallas and New York, homeschools her children. "I homeschool them because I am the best person for the job. I am the best person to mold their minds. And I trained for this job all of my life. I am a creative parent. We don't have any rules. The only rule we have is 'do what I say, when I say and watch me.'"

Puma means "purity and balance" in the astrological star system. Seven means whole, "the number of completion," she explains.

She assures her fans that her new CD is pure Erykah Badu. "It's my testimony of where we are as a race, as a people and as a family here in America. This is my perspective. That's why I put my name in it, Amerykah."

She adds, "Some people will get some messages from Amerykah. Some people will get something from the drums, from the beats. It is all there for them; you can take what you need from the music."

The song Me is "a self-liberation song," she explains. "At the beginning of liberation, you must begin with yourself, the first thing you become is very honest with yourself and you call it like it is. It's also a testimony of where I've been."

In the tune, she says, "had two babies, different dudes and for both of them, my love was true ... this year I turn 36, damn it seems it came so quick."

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She admits that she would love to be married, but it just hasn't been in the cards for her right now. "Marriage would be a wonderful thing, it's a beautiful thing. But you can't force it because everybody expects that of you. It has to be something that is real, natural and beautiful."

She continues, "I come from a long line of 'queendoms,' strong women who raised their children alone. I saw Black women who are resilient and strong. We are best with our mates, but we can make it without them, too, but we are best with them," she says.

Badu's father, William Wright Jr., died in 2001. "He was a beautiful person," she says.

She is clear about what type of man she is seeking. "I wrote in my journal what an ideal man should be. Someone who is responsible, creative and accepting. Someone who is free. When I say free I mean not being a slave to anything or anybody."

Badu arrived on the scene in 1997 with the multiplatinum selling debut CD Baduizm, with the hits On and On, Next Lifetime and Other Side of the Game. She followed up with a concert album Live! with the smash Tyrone. With her trademark elaborate turbans, incense-burning mystique and commanding stage presence, she became an immediate hit.

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Today, she thanks her family for their inspiration and encouragement. She realizes she could never have done it alone. "Family is your tribe, your tradition, your soul's DNA."

She says her mother, Kolleen Wright, a former actress, and maternal grandmother, Thelma Gipson, paternal grandmother, Viola Wilson, and godmother, Gwendolyn Hargrove, taught her how to be a lady--a self-assured, elegant lady onstage and off. "My mother is magical. She taught me I was the best and that I am a winner. And I believed her. And as a result, I never lost anything, ever."