Erykah Badu's 'Baduizm' 25th anniversary
Erykah Badu’s cult debut album 'Baduizm' is celebrating its 25th birthday
Last updated 10th Feb 2022
On February 11th 1997, Erykah Badu - who'd go on to be crowned the "Queen of Neo Soul" - released her eponymous debut album Baduizm.
To celebrate the release of this momentous album, we wanted to step back and reflect on the origins of the album and the impact it has had in the world of music.
Before the release of Baduizm
Neo soul's roots could hark back to the 1980s, with artists such as Prince and SADE fully within the mainstream. Similarly, early hip hop groups like A Tribe Called Quest and The Roots also influencing helping form the foundation of the genre too.
Before the release of Baduizm, the 1990s witnessed artists like the Omar releasing There's Nothing Like This in 1990, followed by D'Angelo's pivotal platinum-selling album Brown Sugar being released in 1995. At just the age of 21, D'Angelo's debut helped mark the 1990s as being the age of neo soul with Brown Sugar - as it helped bring new ideas and sounds to the world of R&B and hip hop fringes.
A little over 18 months after the release of Brown Sugar, Erykah Badu would release her own debut album, with equally important contributions to the world of neo soul.
Erykah Badu before Baduizm
Born on the 26th of February 1971 in Dallas, Texas as Erica Abi Wright, Erykah Badu was introduced to the music and show business from an early age.
Inspired by early hip hop and the soulful sounds of musicians like Stevie Wonder, Chaka Khan, Marvin Gaye, and Earth, Wind and Fire, Erykah was already appearing on local radio stations by the age of 14, featuring alongside fellow Texas talent like the late-great trumpeter Roy Hargrove. The pair would later be reunited to collaborate on Erykah's Worldwide Underground (2003), as well as Roy Hargrove's project The RH Factor.
Erykah attended Booker T. Washington High School - recognised for its creative studies - before studying theatre at Grambling State University. However, she decided to leave before completing her course to follow her passion in music.
Erykah's big break came when she opened a show for D'Angelo in 1994, which led her to be spotted and subsequently picked up by D'Angelo's manager at the time Kedar Massenburg.
Kedar decided to sign Erykah to his label Kedar Entertainment, which was linked with the Universal group.
The making of Baduizm
Recorded across studios in Dallas, Philadelphia, and New York City between January and October 1996, the album was produced and written by Erykah and a combination of hailed names, including The Roots' Ahmir Khalib "Questlove" Thompson, Maduwku Chinwah, Jaborn Jamal, Ike Lee III, Bob Power, James Poyser and her cousin trumpeter Robert Bradford, amongst others.
Erykah had worked closely with Robert Bradford before, as she toured with him and recorded a demo project called Country Cousins.
The album also includes the bass playing of the legendary Ron Carter- famously labelled the most recorded jazz bassist in history.
Baduizm's release and critical reception
'On & On' was Erykah Badu's debut and the lead single from the album - released in January 1997 - was instantly met with success as it made the top spot in the US on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, with it peaking at number 12 in the UK.
Following the release of Baduizm on the 11th of February 1997, Erykah's critical and popular momentum continued, as the album was praised for its ability to pull elements of traditional soul, with hip-hop beats and jazz idioms together.
This praise was matched with commercial success too, with the album having been certified platinum three times by the RIA in the USA, as well as being platinum certified by Music Canada and the BPI in the UK.
During 1997 and 1998, Baduizm scooped up accolades, with Badu and the album being nominated for 21 major awards, including 4 Grammy nominations and 2 wins for 'Best R&B Album' and 'Best Female R&B Vocal Performance' for 'On & On'.
The impact and influence of Baduizm
Baduizm sat solidly within the neo soul world, with artists like Lauryn Hill, Jill Scott, Maxwell, Macy Gray and Bilal all forming a cohort of popular neo soul acts who released music in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Despite the fluctuating prominence of the neo soul movement, and Erykah Badu's reduced output since 2010, Erykah Badu and Baduizm's influences can still be heard in the contemporary soul, hip hop, R&B and jazz communities to this day.
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