Idolator

The R&B-leaning corners of the music blog world proceeded to lose their shit today over the entrancing new Madlib-produced track by Erykah Badu track, and it's easy to hear why: First there's the eerie, downtempo beat (love the cymbal splashes and ghostly backup vox) to make your head wrap come unravelled. The zoned, slo-mo, neo-soul cousin to East Flatbush Project's "Tried By 12"? Then there's Badu's semi-hinged performance spitting a politicized nursery rhyme that slips into Jamaican patois, shouts out departed producer J. Dilla (whose staggered sense of rhythm and late-night needle fuzz are all over the track), and climaxes with the most over the top melisma you're likely to hear on a Universal/Motown album this year. Well, aside from the new Mars Volta.

Erykah Badu - "The Healer" [YouTube]