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Baduizm
02/11/1997 3:00 AM, Yahoo! Music
Chip Stern
It's not enough for someone to be talented or original. No, they have to be the Next Big Thing. As a music writer, given to passionate advocacy, I'm as guilty of lurching into autohype as the next enthusiast, but as I enter my dotage, I feel duty-bound not to hang the albatross of "greatness" around some poor artist's neck. And so it came to pass that upon opening a promo pack for one
Erykah Badu, my scalp was gently massaged with a crowbar--hey, this is the next
Billie Holiday. Save for the fact that I dug one of this elegant lady's videos (and had been proffered an assignment by the potentates at LAUNCH), I would have tossed her press kit and CD into the trash along with that of the lame French tootsie who arrived hypus erectus as--you guessed it--the next Billie Holiday. Well, the good news is that Erykah Badu is a lot better than her hype. She sure ain't Billie Holiday, but that's a function of mistaking timbre for phrasing--a big mistake. Holiday had a unique way of elongating syllables and elasticizing phrases until they lagged gently behind the beat, only to blossom into ripe, bluesy cries that sounded like forlorn question marks. Even when she'd lost every ounce of timbre and tone in her voice, she could still chill you to the core with her soulful way of personalizing a lyric and making a blues note float beyond barlines. Erykah Badu is a soulful siren with a coy, girlish little eggshell of a voice (at times her earnest delivery and broken timbre suggests a young
Diana Ross), a hip-hoppish cadence to her phrasing ("Appletree") and a mature Afrocentric tinge to her world view ("On & On"). Badu's stylings are sexy, understated, intelligent and lightly swinging in the manner of jazz-flavored vocalists such as
Sade, as exemplified by her intro and outro theme ("Rimshot"), a whimsical, bluesy throwaway ("Afro") and a sly, ambivalent love song ("Certainly"). Yet for all the sweetness of her voice and the suave, funky grace of the MIDI-fied production, there is an edgy freedom cry to songs such as "Drama" and "The Other Side Of The Game" which seek to explain how Afro-Americans manage to survive as a people while sustaining relationships and a spiritual focus. More to the point, Miss Badu's intimations of traditional fashion and human values lends a refreshing adult vibe to a tender almost-love song like "Next Lifetime," where the protagonist acknowledges her deep feelings for a man, while begging off awkwardly, due to the fact that--get this--she's already someone's girl, allowing that "I guess I'll see you next lifetime." And in an era of bourgeoisie twaddle and borderline pornography posing as "provocative" R&B, the supple grooves, playful vibe and serene spirit of Baduizm offers hope that more authentic singer-songwriters can break through without wallowing in the gutter.
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