“It’s a lab and a cafe,” says Badu, a vegetarian since high school. The kitchen, she explains, is the epicenter of most family activity. She asks me to join her in the kitchen for some tea – a homeopathic cure-all she calls “a Badu brew” that includes dark maple syrup, echinacea, cayenne, myrrh and herbs from the yard. (Puma was also born here Seven – whose father is OutKast’s André 3000 – was delivered at Badu’s mother’s house.) Badu lives here with her 12-year-old son, Seven and daughters Puma, 6, and Mars, born in the singer’s bed just a year ago. Terra-cotta tiles inscribed with a poem from her 2000 album Mama’s Gun run along a wall leading upstairs. A lamp in the shape of a gold AK-47 sits next to a photo of Badu’s mother and a cardboard cutout of President Obama. On one wall, above a copy of the Periodic Table of the Elements, a massive canvas silk-screened with a photo of Palestinian militant Leila Khaled hangs across from a picture of Harriet Tubman. Earthy incense hangs in the air, and the music – Pink Floyd‘s “Astronomy Domine” comes next – is joined every half-hour by a computerized voice robotically announcing the time: “It’s 4 p.m.” “I just got up, like, five minutes ago,” says the singer, who was awake past 7 a.m. When Badu answers the door in a pink nightgown, her eyes are still sleepy slits. On one recent afternoon, the Byrds‘ “Eight Miles High” blasts from a speaker on a third-floor balcony. Before you even get to the front door of her rustic waterfront split-level, you hear music. Her last album was one of those records like There’s a Riot Goin’ On, where on first listen you’re like, ‘God, that kind of sounds like shit.’ But the more you listen, the more you go, ‘That’s the most real thing I’ve heard in so long.'”īadu grew up in Dallas and still lives there, 10 minutes from her mom, Queenie, and both of her grandmothers. “I love it when somebody takes the time to be fucked up,” says Jim James of My Morning Jacket, who have made a live staple out of a bombastic, bluesy version of Badu’s 1997 tune “Tyrone.” “There’s so much mystery and passion in her music. 'It Was Just a Player-Ass Narration.' Big Boi, Sleepy Brown Break Down Outkast's Vibiest Track EverĪlong the way, she has earned 20 Grammy nominations, four wins and far-reaching influence on adventurous young artists of all stripes. It’s a return to ourselves, and that’s how we lead.” I think it’s a return to self-sufficiency. What I see is woman’s return to her throne, beside her king.

“The pattern I see is the return of balance through femininity, through the mother, through the womb. “Urn, that’s a tricky question,” she says. A young black woman with long braids and a flowing skirt stands up and says, “I want to talk to you on a level of what’s happening with the return of the goddess on a spiritual level.” She struggles to articulate a question but ends up with: “As we return to this planet in a more greater way of forcing taking over, I wanna hear what your views are on matriarchy and how we embrace our brothers along the way.” Badu pauses. Backstage after a recent show in Oakland, the singer – wearing a black top hat, tailcoat and sequined genie pants – finishes breastfeeding her one-year-old daughter, Mars, and heads to a roomful of fans with the baby in her arms. But Erykah Badu’s fans go straight for the astral plane. Meanwhile, most freestyles end up as fodder for Gangsta Grillz_ mixtapes.When most musicians meet their fans, they get asked questions about songwriting or life on the road. Erykah has revived the song’s closing line by using it as the title of her new mixtape, _ But You Caint Use My Phone. “Tyrone” has become an everlasting meme in rap and pop culture (Andre 3000 once took to the booth to deny the song is about him).

Oh, whoa well hold up, listen partner I ain’t no cheap thrillĬause Miss Badu is always comin’ for real and you know the deal, nigga! You say naw, but turn right around and ask me for some ass Now every time I ask you for a little cash 1 record on the Billboard Hot R&B Chart thanks to some sassy, improv quips.

The banter about Badu’s nameless leech not only forever embarrassed anyone wielding the name “Tyrone”-it also went on to become a No. But it just kind of turned into a song that was totally freestyled.” “In rehearsal a lot of times we’d just play around and do stuff like “call me!” but I didn’t know it was going to turn into ‘Tyrone.’ So the background vocalists were prepared because they kind of know the joke. 24) and reminisced about how her timeless hit came about. Badu sat down with The Breakfast Club on Tuesday (Nov. The scrub-bashing “Tyrone” was originally performed and conceptualized live in London, going on to become one of her most memorable songs. One of the biggest records of Erykah Badu’s epic, non-conformist career was concocted off the top of her head-wrapped head.

Erykah badu tyrone chlean