Erikah Badu
Worldwide Underground

THE REVIEW

Black Power

Elegance, sensuality, sophistication, groove: qualities that have always belonged to the beautiful African-American singer Erikah Badu. With the release of her first album, Baduizm at the beginning of 1997, Badu immediately stood out among the best women in black music around. This woman has then fruitfully collaborated with Guru (Jazzmatzz), Busta Rhymes, Common, and other big names in black music, and she has also been an actress, as in the films The Cider House Rules and Blues Brothers (2000).

Her new CD Worldwide Underground is now out, a magnificent album that noticeably differs from her previous works. One eye on modern soul, another on the '70s funky, in an enticing mix of Billie Holliday's jazz (Badu has vocal similarities with the Lady in Blue, undoubtedly), the urban sound of Shaft, and the social hip-hop of Arrested Development. A concentrate of free-soul and blaxploitation, Motown style of the hippie era. Splendid, captivating, engaging.

Note the cover and the booklet, clear references to beads and the afro-look, black power, and "make love no war". This work is exquisitely spontaneous, conceived as if it were a long jam-session (in theory, it would be an EP, but it lasts 50 minutes), so here we are exempt from the classic glam-kitsch lacquered and rigid production typical of today's black-soul. Instead, there are abundant slapped basses, colloquial guitars, and a handful of shimmering psychedelia. The sequence I recommend is The Grind, then Danger (the single), Think Twice, Love Of My Life Worldwide: here from soul, it moves to funk, jazz, to reach hip-hop and disco (a tribute to Ring My Bell by Anita Ward?). Worldwide Underground is a warm and enveloping fire, a rejuvenating balm for your chilly winter evenings.