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Badu To The Bone
10/10/1997 3:00 AM, Yahoo! Music
Dave DiMartino
When Baduizm, the 1997 debut album
by hip-hop high priestess Erykah Badu, reached No. 1 on Billboard's R&B
albums chart and No. 2 on its Top 200, the news came as no surprise to
its creator. In fact, this spirited chanteuse, who many critics liken to
the late Billie Holiday, claims she "planned" for her current success
from day one. That plan was a good one and quickly bore fruit as "On &
On," the album's first single, soared to No. 1 on Billboard's R&B
singles chart and peaked at No. 12 on the Hot 100. When this busy artist
sat down with LAUNCH executive editor Dave DiMartino, she discussed
everything from her philosophies on life to the voice that is so
reminiscent of a long-gone diva.
LAUNCH:
Your debut album is doing exceptionally well. Could you have
expected such critical acclaim and sales success so early on?
BADU:
I planned my success. I knew it was going to happen. I
believed in myself, and I've always worked very, very hard as an artist,
and I am an artist in every sense of the word. I'm a totally
right-side-brain person. Everything that has to do with art and
creativity comes to me effortlessly. I knew it would happen. I knew I'd
be No. 1. I'm a new artist; I don't know the rules. Nobody told me it
wouldn't happen.
LAUNCH:
The response to your songs must make you feel really
good.
BADU:
I love to leave the interpretation of my music up to the
listener. It's fun to see what they'll say it is. The truth is, there
are millions and billions of particles of atomic memory of different
things in my music. It took me my whole life to do my first album.
LAUNCH:
There are so many diverse influences that one can pick up in
your music. What kind of music did you grow up listening to? What had an
impact on you?
BADU:
I grew up listening to old soul. I'm a '70s baby: Chaka Khan,
Stevie Wonder, Thelonious Monk, Marvin Gaye, Earth, Wind & Fire, the
Emotions...all those people. Then, as a teenager, I was a hip-hop baby.
The heartbeat of my music became the bass line and the drums. Then I got
more into jazz. I learned about those things and put a lot of different
things into my music. I don't even know which part of which song--or
which part of my music--is jazz, which part is R&B, which part is
hip-hop. It's just me. A collaboration of different things. And I invite
the energy of all music into my cipher to help me do what I have to
do.
LAUNCH:
Have you always been writing music? Did you grow up in a
musical family?
BADU:
I grew up in south Dallas, Texas. I started performing at two
or three on a tape recorder, one of those little flat recorders where
you just push PLAY and RECORD. My grandmother taught me how to use it,
and I would sing church songs, 'cuz she wouldn't let us sing any other
kind. She brought us a piano and I wrote my first song: "Baby, Baby,
there you are/You're more precious than a star..." I was about seven at
the time. My grandmother came in and said, "You don't know nothin' about
no Baby, Baby." And she made me change it to Jesus. "Jesus, Jesus, there
you are..." My grandmother was very influential in my life. She was very
religious and very systematic about her religion. My next phase was that
of being rebellious: religious rebellion. I didn't feel that any
organization or anything could define my relationship with the Creator
'cuz it's ours--mine and the Creator's. I am not systematic at all when
it comes to religion. I just love life. And I'm not judgmental. And I'm
a vegetarian.
LAUNCH:
I hear you were a rapper that went by the name of MC Apples
for awhile. That's an interesting name. Where did it come from?
BADU:
Apples. How I got the name, Apples, I do not know. A boy in my
class decided to call me that because he thought I was cute. The "MC"
part came when I was rapping. I was all the time making up poems,
syncopating them, putting them to hip-hop beats, rapping, flowing. The
Sugar Hill Gang was out then, and I didn't have a rap name, so I took
Apples. I was keepin' it real. I was really good. It was fun; that's how
I started out performing in front of an audience with a mic, and
actually first hearing myself through the house speakers--rapping.
LAUNCH:
Obviously you are you, and you can't help the way you sound,
but you can't deny that your voice sounds very reminiscent of Billie
Holiday's. Was she a big influence on you as a singer?
BADU:
The first time I heard her was when I was in high school and I
saw Lady Sings The Blues. Diana Ross's voice was what really
attracted me to that sound, that feeling. It was so beautiful to me and
romantic and melancholy and sad, all those things we love as women. I
think I've always sounded like I sound, but I think more than sounding
alike, I think we feel alike. I share that emotion. I have the ability
to sing with emotion and feeling, but if you say I sound like Billie
Holiday, that's cool. Let's look at who Billie was: she was this person,
this singer, this beautiful diva who could move the audience with the
slightest gesture of her hand.
LAUNCH:
When did things really start to happen for you? Do you
remember a critical moment in your career when you realized this was
your "big break"?
BADU:
When I was in second grade--that was my big break. There was a
boys' part for a lead singer in the play. You had to be a bully boy, and
carry a bat. All the boys were auditioning. The teacher said: "Who else
wants to audition?" I raised my hand, and I auditioned. I put on this
macho thing, and I put on my bat. I got the part. From then on, I
realized this is what I want to do, what I'm supposed to do: Giving
energy and receiving it back through applause. I love it. That's my
world. I love it. I enjoy it. I live for it.
LAUNCH:
The album is called Baduizm. Is that just a word, or
is it in fact, a philosophy?
BADU:
"Baduizm" is an experience, an emotion, a feeling. "Badu" is
my name, "izm" is what you smoke--it gets you high. "Baduizm" is
designed to get you high through pure music, energy and soul. My "izms"
are lighting my candles, burning my incense, knowing my creator, knowing
myself. Loving my creator, loving myself. Building
bridges--understanding. Destroying bridges--overstanding. Using my
melanin, my power, mastering myself. Writing a song, sending a message,
memorizing a story. Those are Baduizms and things I wanted to share with
people. They are things that helped me grow as an individual. It's not a
religion. Don't follow me and change gods or nothing. I just want you to
feel it like I do.
LAUNCH:
It seems to have worked well for you--this Baduizm.
BADU:
I wasn't trying to do anything. I just wanted to be who I was
and put it on wax. Where I'm from in Dallas everybody was digging it. I
thought it was time to just go on and be what I am. Music and the music
business are two different things. The music business is
motivated by money. Music is motivated by energy and feelings. I knew we
had two separate agendas when I went into the music business, but I was
determined to stay strong and focused and not allow anyone to infiltrate
what I want to do. I often feel I'm all by myself until it's done and
everyone says, "Yes, look what we've done." I try to help everyone keep
their jobs, make their money, and at the same time, I get my energy from
the people. Everybody's happy.
LAUNCH:
You and D'Angelo recorded the Marvin Gaye track "Your
Precious Love" recently. You must be a big Marvin Gaye fan.
BADU:
Marvin Gaye is one of my favorite revolutionaries. He spoke
from his heart, his mind. That's what I want to do. Sometimes I even
say: "Marvin..." [Praying, looking to the sky] He just did what he
wanted to do. The label's idea was for D'Angelo and I to do a Marvin
song together. We had egos and wanted to do our own song, but then we
heard the production. You're not going to believe this: We went into the
studio on Marvin Gaye's birthday--the same studio where he recorded the
song originally with Tammi Terell. D'Angelo was great; he knocked out
his vocals great. I was nervous; I'd never recorded in a big studio and
I'd never done anything professionally as a singer. So I did my 57
takes, and they all sound exactly alike. It was a great experience. It
turned out to be a really cool song. It didn't do a lot on the charts,
and it wasn't a single, but those who hear it, dig it a lot. I love it.
I enjoyed working with D'Angelo a lot. He's a true artist. We would be
doing this whether we had record deals or not.
LAUNCH:
It seems like you are one of those artists who is very
hands-on when it comes to your career. Do you feel uncomfortable leaving
your art in the hands of these record company executives?
BADU:
Of course, it's mine. My baby. I gave birth to it. You don't
want to just give your natural hair, vegetarian baby to some meat
eating, perm-wearers. They don't know how to nurture your baby! I'm at
the office three days a week; they hate to see me coming! I'm just
kidding. They love it. They love that I want to participate. I don't
want to feel like I'm being done a favor by participating on my album.
I'm an artist, not a singer. I'm an artist in every way, from the
artwork, to how the lyrics are written out, to the way I say "thank
you," to the poster, to my video, to what I wear. This is real; it ain't
no make believe. It would be unfair to leave it in anyone else's hands
until I'm comfortable.
LAUNCH:
What makes you really angry?
BADU:
The media, and the way they try to play the east coast against
the west coast so much. I'm a hip-hopper, and it's something you live
and do. It makes me angry that we're misrepresented, that we're being
killed every day by one another, by the government, by the food we eat,
the choices we make. It makes me angry because it doesn't have to be
that way and it is.
My boy just got killed: Biggie. He was the illest--the best MC I ever
heard. There was no one like him, and it makes me angry that he's gone.
He just said in these last articles about him that he was tired of being
angry, of fighting--that's when he gets killed. Angry. That's terrible.
He wanted to do the right thing. Now, it makes you wonder, who's killing
us? That's my question of the century.
LAUNCH:
You seem very directed. You mentioned that you planned for
your current success. What do your plans entail now?
BADU:
I have a master plan as an artist. I've always said I'm not
going to be punching nobody's clock. I will work as an artist to survive
in this world. I will start with the singing and define myself as an
individual, have my own name, be a complete person. Then, I'll go onto
film because everyone loves to see a singer go on to film--especially if
they're a really good actress. Then I'll direct. Then as a dancer, I'll
open a dance school. Ultimately, a complete arts school. I'll dabble
here and there in different forms of the art, but the label has me
locked down like a slave so, of course, I'll be doing albums during this
time.
But now I realize that this record business really needs me. No one else
is trying to take a chance or do something different. So now, I don't
know where in the hell I'm going to be in the next five or 10 years,
because I know I have to be right here.
LAUNCH:
Can you recommend some music our readers might be interested
in? What are you listening to right now?
BADU:
I think you should all check out the Roots. They are the
illest hip hop band. OutKast, they're from the dirty south. They have
ill flows--that's ebonics for "really good rappers." Excellent. Omar, a
cat from London, he hasn't gotten a lot of play in the U.S. I'm a
critic, man, I'm really hard on people, but when I listen to Omar I just
listen. He's like medicine, I feel like I can be healed.
LAUNCH:
You seem very spiritual, like an old soul. Do you ever
experiment with new technologies? How do you feel about the computer,
the Internet, CD-ROMs?
BADU:
Man, I don't want to have nothing to do with computers. I
don't want the government in my business. No matter what I believe, it's
what the powers-that-be believe that will affect me. So y'all can have
them computers. I won't have it.
LAUNCH:
Can you offer us a Baduizm in closing?
BADU:
As Erykah Badu, it has nothing to do with me, the way I look,
my hair wrap, my style, it's about you and what you feel for my music.
If I can make you feel like the way that people who influenced me made
me feel, that's completion. That's 360 degrees. My cipher keeps going
like a rolling stone.
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