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]
shes a little - ok a lot - hammy - but this is dope…
@ProblemWithCaring: Beyond hammy. Badu is craaa-zy. But this is her best single in ages.
that was amaaaazing. Between this and the new ?uestlove backed Al Green, I feel a good year for soul music… Where art thou D’angelo?
@ProblemWithCaring:She’s not crazy, “she’s an artist and she’s sensitive about her shit”.
Haha you guys, it just sounds like Common’s “Electric Circus” stuff, which everyone except me clowned on when it came out in 2002. Don’t get me wrong, I love ‘em both. But still.
the video’s gone!
Erykah Badu is not crazy. She a genius. It’s hard for small minds to get that.