Erykah Badu

The D.O.C (2003-2004)

Jay Electronica (2004–2009)

Carl Jones (2013–2018)

Erykah Badu is a singer, songwriter, producer, actress and music video director, born on February 26th 1971. She debuted in late 1996 with the single On & On, and the following year released her triple Platinum-certified debut album Baduizm. The highly successful album was followed by her first top-10 single, Bag Lady, and second studio album Mama's Gun. She is commonly referred to as the queen of neo-soul (despite her dislike of the title), as she is a pioneer in the genre of neo-soul especially for women. Her debut single, On & On, became the first neo-soul single to top the Billboard R&B/Hip Hop charts.

## Early life and years before fame (1971-1996)

Erykah Badu was born on February 26th 1971 as Erica Abi Wright to mother Kolleen Maria Gipson (last name Wright during marriage) and father William Wright Jr. She was solely raised by her mother after her parents separated, as well as her grandmothers.

Erykah was very interested in the performing arts from a young age; performing in many theatre centres from the age of four, as well as freestyling for radio stations at fourteen. After graduating from Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing Arts, Erykah began to major in theatre at Grambling State University in Louisiana, where she would later leave in 1993 to pursue a more focused career in music. From then on, she took many minimum wage jobs.

After being discovered by Kedar Massenberg, a record producer and the president of Universal Motown Records and Kedar Entertainment, Erykah recorded a demo song with fellow neo-soul singer D'Angelo and went on to sign an album deal with Universal Records (the label she has stayed with till her most recent album).

## Rise to fame with Baduizm (1996-1998)

After signing a record deal with Kedar Entertainment and Universal Motown, Erykah began recording what would become her debut album Baduizm throughout the year 1996 in many cities, most prominently New York, Philadelphia and Dallas.

Erykah released her debut single, On & On, in December 1996. The song immediately became known, reaching the top 20 in the UK and her home country, the USA. The song also topped the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop charts, the first neo-soul single to do so and stayed there for two weeks. Her following debut album would be released on February 11th 1997, instantly successful in commercial and critical areas. The album reached its peak of number 2 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, and number 17 on the UK albums chart. It was certified 3x Platinum in the USA and Platinum in the UK. The success of Baduizm was followed by the releases of 3 other singles, Next Lifetime, Other Side Of The Game, and Appletree.

After the huge success of Baduizm, Erykah recorded a live counterpart simply titled Live which was released on the same day that her son with former boyfriend Andre 3000, Seven Sirius Benjamin, was born. Live was also a success, being certified 2x Platinum and containing the radio hit Tyrone. She also toured throughout North America, South America and Europe in 1997 and 1998 in the Baduizm World Tour.

## Break and return with Mama's Gun (1998-2000)

After giving birth to Seven, Erykah began a break in her musical career to take care of her son. However, throughout 1998-2000, Erykah began working on her next album.

During the fruition of the album, Erykah began working with a musical group called The Soulquarians (consisting of Erykah Badu herself, Bilal, Common, D'Angelo, Roy Hargrove, Talib Kweli, Mos Def, Pino Palladino, James Poyser, Q-Tip, Questlove, and J Dilla). The collaboration would later fall out due to the break up of Erykah and former boyfriend André 3000, however most songs on her next album were co-written and co-produced by the group. The breakup also would create a theme of writing for Erykah in relationships (shown in songs such as Bag Lady), as well as human rights and themes shown in Baduizm such as religion.

On November 21st 2000, Erykah released her second studio album, Mama's Gun. The album included hits such as the Billboard Hot 100 top 10 single Bag Lady and single Didn't Cha Know which gained resurgence on the social media app TikTok with over 147,000 posts as of December 2023. The album was critically acclaimed, with a score of 88/100 from Metacritic, however lacked the chart success Baduizm had, peaking at #11 on the Billboard 200 chart. Erykah stated that she felt disappointed about this, however fan support showed her that 'work is not always for commercial success'.

## Worldwide Underground and collaborations (2000-2003)

1. ↑ https://www.tiktok.com/music/Didn't-Cha-Know-6814383990737225730?lang=en
2. ↑ https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Erykah\_Badu\_The\_First\_Lady\_of\_Neo\_Soul.html?id=i96aAwAAQBAJ&source=kp\_book\_description&redir\_esc=y