Frenchy’s Reloads: Erykah Badu - “Worldwide Underground”
General Description
Artist/Band: Erykah Badu
Album Title: Wordwide Underground
Year: 2003
Mellow, musical craftmanship with a touch of weirdness and a lot of Soul..
How I Got Into This Music
CNN did a special segment on the Texas artist with the weird spelling, Erykah Badu. And they showed parts of the video “On And On”, and I was stunned! Here’s this skinny yet incredibly beautiful lady with the big killer eyes, singing a nasal variant of something sounding like Miss Billie Holiday, wow!!
Now she can’t compare to Lady Day and she sure as hell ain’t trying to. So I was hooked immediately, but her first album “Baduizm” didn’t work for me. Later on, “Baduizm Live” came out, a live registration (as the title already suggests), and that album.. well, it worked instantly!! It was weird how much difference in enjoyment there was for me between the studio and the live album..
This continued with her second album “Mama’s Gun” which couldn’t impress me at all.. Then this album “Worldwide Underground” came out..
Tracks that got my attention:
Bump It Featuring Zap Mama & Karon Wheeler
Remember Karon Wheeler? No? Howzabout the “Back To Life” track from SoulIISoul? Ahah.. She did the vocals.
Groovy soul track with a weird finale
Back in the Day (Puff)
Now this track really gets me going! Mega mellow melodies, instant floor filler and weird nostalgia trigger.. Love it!!
I Want You
This is a very gutsy song. I tried letting friends of mine listen to it, but the intro is about two minutes before any real melody is presented. Now I got used to it after three times, but I understand why this wouldn’t work for a lot of people.
Thing is, once the song gets going, you get a very, very enjoyable track and once you’ve listened to the whole thing a coupla times, you understand how much of a risk has been taken.. Masterful and powerful track!
Woo
Please people, skip the “Nu Soul” labelling, okay? This is excellent Soul, nuff said..
Think Twice Featuring Roy Hargrove
Gotta brush up on my classics.. Can’t figure out the original version of this track, but hey.. Nice groove..
Love Of My Life Featuring Queen Latifah, Angie Stone and Bahamadia
Often sounds quite crappy but I love the guest vocals by Angie Stone and Bahamadia..
Conclusion
Badu’s album or EP or whatever is an album I play quite a lot, so I enjoy listening to it. You kinda expect her to do more impressive stuff, but this lady’s got a mind of her own and doesn’t do her music to please others (even her record label, I guess..). This is not a hit album, but still there are nice tracks, so-so tracks and two great songs on it.. She really is one of the prominent Soul artists of this time.
Rating: 
(those eyes.. oooooh..)
October 17th, 2006 at 10:25 pm
[...] I’m sooooo slow on the uptake.. How I Got Into This MusicI didn’t.. Ehm.. Gotta be honest, I didn’t get into this music after a coupla tries and for quite a while I didn’t think much of it. First time I looked this album up, was after I heard Roy Hargrove play on the Think Twice version on Erykah Badu’s Worldwide Underground album. I found this Hard Groove album, and it just wasn’t working for me. Then I got a chance to see him perform live at the North Sea Jazz Festival this year and again, it didn’t click - I was kinda underwhelmed. Last month I thought about the album again and I gave the album another listen. Hmmm.. Huh? [...]