Features
Erykah Badu
By Thomas Matich
Apr 29, 2008, 12:10

Erykah Badu
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Two things I know about Erykah Badu: she has an awesome afro (that’s actually a wig) and made perhaps the best song ever about putting your man in check: “Tyrone.” Her latest album, New Amerykah: Part One (4th World War) is her strongest since 2000’s platinum Mama’s Gun, with its 9th Wonder produced single “Honey” taking it back to those old-school days with a creative music video that animates Badu inside the artwork of classic vinyl. RDW caught up with Badu over the phone to talk about America and what time it is!

Hey Erykah, what’s up?
I’m in a bed. I’m taking a nap.

Tired?
No, just old …

Old? You gotta stay young.
That’s how you stay young, beauty sleep.

What’s the story behind the title of the new album?
My New Amerykah is Erykah’s perspective of what’s happening right now and it’s totally different. I remember when I came out with my first album in 1997, the cell phone was not a mainstream item, it was a luxury item and things have really sped up and changed rapidly. The desperation has sped up a lot and that means the programmers have to keep up with us.

I’ve heard terms like “weird,” “left,” “out there” and “eccentric” to describe you …
Why, because I’m black? What’s so different about my music or Mars Volta or Pink Floyd? They didn’t call that eccentric.

I wouldn’t say it’s a race thing, I’ve heard people say The Wall was out there …
I guess, well, there’s so many artists making a statement, I’m just saying   what I feel.

What do you think is weird?
Hmm, I guess what’s "out there" to people is kinda where I am; it’s the world I live in and how they made me.

What do you think of the new Roots album?
Oh, it’s to the left; they’re weird.

They did a song with Fall Out Boy, that’s pretty out there …
They’re very progressive and they always push the envelope.

Your Blender interview has people talking. Do you trust the press?
I trust them to be what they are and do what they’re gonna do, and right now it seems like a dance we're doing between artists, journalists, publicists and the magazines. They’re trying to sell units; we’re trying to sell units. You don’t know what you’re gonna get when you interview an artist, I don’t know what kind of article is gonna come out when I get the magazine. It’s a gamble right now and nothing can be for certain because everything is for sale. The scariest thing about it is a wonderful ten-foot scarf you’ve been working on for ten years can be unraveled in two minutes with someone’s opinion of what you said.

Blender quotes you as saying, “Time is for white people.”
Oh yeah, definitely. Time was created for the white race, not for black people; we don’t go by that at all.

As a journalist I appreciate that sentiment, because we live by the deadline; time creates stress.
Well, just date a black person for a little while. The fascination is living, baby.  | RDW

Erykah Badu • 5/4 • Fox Theatre

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