Baduizm by Erykah Badu
Baduizm is the debut album of R&B and neo soul musician Erykah Badu, released February 11, 1997 on Kedar Records. Recording sessions for the album took place during January to October 1996 at Battery Studios in New York City, Sigma Sounds & Ivory Studios in Philadelphia, and Dallas Sound Lab in Dallas. Production was handled by Badu, Madukwu Chinwah, John Meredith, James Poyser, and The Roots. Baduizm serves as a landmark album in the neo soul genre, as it helped develop its popularity and commercial visibility at the time of the album's release.
<b>100 Best Albums</b> In 1997, as a new cadre of socially conscious, hip-hop soul songwriters was emerging from the underground, <i>Baduizm</i> shifted the entire R&B landscape. A 25-year-old Texan with a preternaturally cool sense of groove and a jazz twang that conjured Billie Holliday with a joint simmering between her fingers, Badu brought an approach to songwriting that simply <i>was</i> the sound of neo-soul. “<i>Baduizm</i> was designed to get you high,” she said at the time. “<i>Baduizm</i> is lighting my incense, lighting my candles, knowing the creator, knowing myself.” Her approach to spirituality in her music was down-to-earth—as was her style, with flowing dresses and an omnipresent head wrap. But her music was otherworldly, even as she sang conversationally about the concerns of the everywoman, whether working poverty and sociopolitical pressures or the dirty deeds of unworthy lovers. Propelled by the slow groove of her rotating backing band, including bass legend Ron Carter and a little-known Philadelphia group called The Roots, she channelled and then embodied a cultural shift towards Afrocentricism, creating a sonic throughline of Black musics like ’30s blues and ’70s jazz to soul on the precipice of a new millennium, all anchored by a deeply funky rhythm section. “Sometimes (Mix #9)” makes great use of Philly’s Gamble and Huff-style groove, while lead single “On & On” brought Blue Note Records to the era of the b-girl. One of Badu’s great feats was the way she wove her voice in and around the bass and drums like sultry tendrils of smoke, loose as a free-jazz saxophonist when she wanted to be. The cohesion and promise of <i>Baduizm</i>’s vision took her triple-platinum and made her a star, and hinted at her long career to come.
