‘Amerykah’ Revolution Cd Review Soul

By Preston Jones, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas

Feb. 26–Exploding into the national consciousness with 1997′s near-flawless Baduizm, Dallas native and neo-soul figurehead Erykah Badu spurred a mini-revolution within the borders of soul music.

D’Angelo, Maxwell, Jill Scott, Lauryn Hill and Badu pushed things forward here in the States, incorporating several sonic elements — jazz, funk, house — and generally injecting a cool intelligence into a genre that, by the end of the ’90s, threatened to disappear.

Badu’s visibility lessened as the millennium dawned. While her 2000 sophomore album Mama’s Gun was a scorching success, its follow-up, 2003′s Worldwide Underground, was distracted and diffuse, a result of Badu focusing more on other endeavors (side projects, acting and community activism). Five years have passed since Worldwide Underground dropped and in that time, Badu hit the pause button, largely stepping away from the spotlight to raise her family and reflect on her life and accomplishments.

On her first album in half a decade, Badu’s deliriously funky, politically charged New Amerykah (the longer, more tangled title is New Amerykah Part One (4th World War); supposedly, Part Two will see the light of day later this year) reveals an artist shifting into an introspective phase marked by reluctance and acceptance. There’s also a slightly funereal element — one of New Amerykah’s most poignant cuts, Telephone, is in honor of the late James Yancey, better known as groundbreaking producer J Dilla. As she notes in the album’s blunt, beautiful centerpiece ME, Badu edges closer to 40 this year; and she remains an artist long known for frank discussions of whatever’s on her mind. This slinky, sexy self-assessment is the record’s crown jewel.

A galaxy of underground hip-hop stars — from 9th Wonder to Madlib — applies their skills to these woozy, stylish tracks, slicing and dicing samples, creating moods melancholy and militant while soaking the entire album in a vintage vinyl feel. Guest shots from Bilal and Badu’s impassioned performances make this 11-track effort feel expansive; unfortunately, one of the best pre-release cuts I’ve heard (a remix of Real Thang) is MIA here.

Nevertheless, Badu, her head in the clouds and her feet on the streets, seems to have reconnected with a fiery ’70s sensibility that evokes social change and shakin’ your groove thang in equal measure.

Download this: ME

Erykah Badu

New Amerykah, Part One (4th World War)

**** out of 5 stars

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