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Rating: 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.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
05 Woo (03:14)
[Hook:]
Woooooooo
(Yeah, y'all know it? Come on, Come on, everybody feelin'it, come on)
Woooooooo
(Uh, uh, uh, So if ya feel it in your body say...)
Woooooooo
(Uh, uh, uh, now, to make the rain come down, come on)
Woooooooo
(Yeah, uh, ah yeah, uh B-boys and B-Girls now say...)
Woooooooo
(Ah yeah, uh, one time for your mind behind, now now)
Woooooooo
(Uh, yeah, Sophisticated gangsterism, uh pimpism say...)
Woooooooo
(Hey, Little Badu and Little Pimpin', come on)
Woooooooo
(Hey, Whatsup Tita come on, Brother Beat, come on say...)
Woooooooo
(Yeah, I see you on the right, we can jam all night, come on)
Woooooooo
(Yeah, wait, uh watch this, watch this, watch this)
Well, I came to your show
I respect your flow
Now I wanna know if you wanna go
To the studio, bust a rhyme or two
Uh, what ya wannna do, Uh what ya wanna do
Bring a sack
But I'm cool wit that
I got the paper stack
And the pimped-out track
Got the song and it's on, it's on
Got the studio locked down all night long
[Hook:]
Woooooooo
(Ha ha, yeah uh, come on, come on, come on)
Woooooooo
(Hey, come on, see don't be scared cuz its just a little something called...)
Woooooooo
(Hey, lay back, come on, everybody give me something now)
Woooooooo
(Hey fellas, come on, don't make me mad, come on
Woooooooo
(Yeah yeah, one more, one more, say it wit me now)
Woooooooo
(Woo, hold on watch this, watch this, watch this, watch this)
Well I'ma sing you a song
So play that track
With the crickets in the back
It's so abstract
(piccolo plays a tune)
[Hook:]
Woooooooo
(Yeah, ha ha, now see I like it like that, come on)
Woooooooo
(Uh, so all the B-boys and all the B-girls, come on)
Woooooooo
(Hey, back door spit wit ya, so come on, come on)
Woooooooo
(Hey South Dallas, East side, Westside, come on)
Woooooooo
(One time, One time,Where's Dallas at?)
Woooooooo
(Norla Park all the way to the B-K-L, come on)
Woooooooo
(Hey, A train, C train, number one and two, come on)
Woooooooo
(Uh, yeah, Westside, Whassup Stoop? Come on, hey)
Woooooooo
(Uh, Downtown Dallas...)
Woooooooo
(Uh, uh, thank you, thank you, thank you, one more)
Woooooooo
(That's great)
fade
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Other reviews
By Supernova
With this album, Erykah Badu reaffirms herself as the most solid, concrete, and innovative reality in contemporary black music.
The main theme of the album is FREEDOM, understood and treated in all its forms.
