New Amerykah, Pt. 1 (4th World War)

Asahi

pitchfork

The first in a series of pointedly social records from Erykah Badu, this fascinating, sonically adventurous album finds her exploring a post–Civil Rights landscape in which African-Americans have been left to sort out how to have a cultural identity as part of a nation that had, up until very recently, been a dedicated adversary. Madlib, 9th Wonder, and Shafiq Husayn are among the producers.

rollingstone

Erykah Badu has embarked on one of the more ambitious projects in recent R&B history: This year, she'll release New AmErykah, a series of at least two, possibly three, albums tackling sociopolitical issues like poverty and 9/11, drawing on musical styles from the Forties through the Sixties, and promising, she says, to "talk for my […]