page_title: New Amerykah Part One (4th World War)
section_title: Musical style
hierarchical_section_title: New Amerykah Part One (4th World War) / Musical style
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Miles Davis Septet Sigma 7
context_page_description: New Amerykah Part One (4th World War) is the fourth studio album by American R&B singer-songwriter Erykah Badu. It was released on February 26, 2008, by Universal Motown.
  After a hiatus from recording music due to writer's block, Badu received music from several hip hop producers over the Internet and recorded demos of her vocals using the GarageBand software on her laptop. Most of the album was then recorded at Electric Lady Studios in New York City.
  New Amerykah Part One is an esoteric concept album titled as a pun on Badu's first name and a reflection of the record's political leanings. It features social commentary and themes related to the plight of the African-American community, including poverty, urban violence, complacency, and cultural identity. The record's densely produced music incorporates hip hop, soul, funk, jazz, and electronica styles.
  The album debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 chart, eventually selling 359,000 copies in the United States by December 2009. Two singles were released in support of the album—"Honey" and "Soldier"—and Badu performed its music on her Vortex World Tour.
context_section_description: The album's music is a dense, stylistic amalgam that primarily incorporates funk, soul, and hip hop genres, as well as jazz and electronica. The New Yorker called it "a politically charged neo-soul suite with cutting-edge production", while The Independent critic Andy Gill deemed it a work of psychedelic soul. Nelson George described the record as "a complicated mesh of soul, electro sounds and references, simple and obscure ... a musically challenging album that owes much to Radiohead and Curtis Mayfield". Expanding of the loose, jam-oriented style of Worldwide Underground, it features groove-based instrumentation, murky tones, hip hop musical phrasing, eccentric interludes, and various beats, digital glitches, and samples. Sputnikmusic's Nick Butler said the album "moved beyond the ideas and conventions that have defined neo-soul over the past decade." Greg Kot wrote that, "Like her peers D'Angelo (with Voodoo in 2000), Common (Electric Circus in 2002) and the Roots (Phrenology in 2002), Badu has made a record that defies efforts to categorize it." He remarked that its "murkier, funkier vibe" draws on the "hypnotic funk" of early 1970s albums such as Miles Davis's On the Corner (1972), Herbie Hancock's Sextant (1973), and Sly & the Family Stone's There's a Riot Goin' On (1971). Other critics also drew comparisons to Voodoo and On the Corner, citing New Amerykah's unhurried feel and preference for "sound and mood over choruses and verses".
  Similar to Voodoo and On the Corner, New Amerykah Part One emphasizes sound and mood over choruses and verses. The album is unified by a musical theme, with songs sequenced together and typified by ominous musical elements, minor-key melodies, and atmospheric beats. Songs on the album also incorporate experimental hip hop backing tracks and other hip hop elements in a surrealistic manner. The majority of the beats are dark, blunted, and hazy, and have been noted by music writers as conveying an urban soundscape and feeling of paranoia. Lauren Carter of the Boston Herald said the songs often have "the feel of a seance". Most of them were either produced or co-written by members of Sa-Ra, who were known for their sonically dissonant music, characterized by eccentric chord placements and off-time beats. Sasha Frere-Jones believed the record "isn't so much hip-hop as it is a reorganization of the historical flotsam and jetsam that were recycled and turned into hip-hop."
caption: New Amerykah's emphasis on funk sounds and texture over song structure has been compared to the 1972 album On the Corner by Miles Davis (1971).
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "683", "Image ImageLength": "1024", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2014:09:17 07:48:58", "Image ImageDescription": "Sigma  7", "Image Make": "Nikon", "Image Model": "LS-4000", "Image Software": "PaintShop Pro 17,00", "Image Artist": "Jean-Pierre Roche", "Image Copyright": "Jean-Pierre Roche", "Image InterColorProfile": "[]", "Image IPTC/NAA": "[28, 2, 5, 0, 18, 77, 105, 108, 101, 115, 32, 68, 97, 118, 105, 115, 32, 83, 101, 112, ... ]", "Image ExifOffset": "206", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 2, 0, 0]", "GPS GPSLatitudeRef": "N", "GPS GPSLatitude": "[44, 101111/2000, 0]", "GPS GPSLongitudeRef": "W", "GPS GPSLongitude": "[0, 86807/2500, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "272", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "3993", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4364", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "683", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1024", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2014:09:16 11:25:55"}