New Amerykah Part One (4th World War)

(pictured in 2006) sent music to Badu during her hiatus. Dealing with writer's block and conflicted about her mainstream success, Erykah Badu embarked on her Frustrated Artist Tour in 2003. Her increasing popularity brought upon some backlash towards her public image and expectations of her as "queen of neo soul", an honorific nickname that she found limiting. Badu herself was not satisfied with the album and felt she had nothing substantial to express with her music at the time. She took time off from her recording career to deal with her creative block and focus on caring for her children, In 2004, Badu gave birth to a daughter, Puma Rose, with her former boyfriend, rapper The D.O.C. Later that year, she received her first computer as a Christmas gift from drummer and producer Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, and began communicating with and receiving music from him and other producers such as Q-Tip and J Dilla. Badu worked from her home in Dallas and used the software application GarageBand as a digital audio workstation, which she was introduced to by her son, and she used it to construct various backing tracks for songs. Using GarageBand, she recorded demos of her vocals by singing into the computer's microphone. In an interview for the New York Post, she explained the album to be about "the war against self ... against your inner being", and said of her hiatus, "I've always taken my time between albums. I'm a performing artist - recording is secondary to me. My performances are what drive me. It's like my therapy. I like to write a lot while I'm on the road before I even think about recording." Badu also said that she now had a relevant message to express for listeners and was no longer struggling with a creative block. == Recording ==

(2005) For New Amerykah Part One, Badu collaborated principally with Questlove, Madlib, 9th Wonder, Karriem Riggins, James Poyser, audio engineer Mike "Chav" Chavarria, and the members of musical group Sa-Ra, who made production and lyrical contributions to most of the tracks. Badu began recording New Amerykah Part One at Luminous Sound Recording in Dallas, where she was assisted by Chavarria in recording vocals and basic tracks to 2-tracks. Of all her collaborators, Badu only let Husayn write lyrics for her on the album. Husayn said that because Badu had not allowed anyone to do this before, "she had to go through some personal things to come to the point where she'd let somebody write for her in the manner that we did. It was spontaneous but at the same time there was structure to it. It might not have the right expression, or the right enunciation. Writing is so personal. That was a big thing." Electric Lady sessions Badu subsequently held recording sessions at Electric Lady Studios in New York City, where the album was completed. Badu worked with audio engineers Chris Bell, Tom Soares, and Chavarria. The latter had spent numerous hours with Badu listening to her previous albums, including her 1997 debut Baduizm and its 2000 follow-up ''Mama's Gun, as well as older albums such as The Dark Side of the Moon (1973) by progressive rock band Pink Floyd and Innervisions'' (1973) by Stevie Wonder. her vocals were characterized by high scales, varied frequencies, wide intervals, and time-stretched harmonies. Chavarria, who engineered the vocals with Badu, remarked on her singing, "Her voice has so many frequencies, from a subharmonic of her tonic to a thin raspiness, and she wants to hear all of that." Badu used a Shure SM57 dynamic microphone, finding it to have enough bottom for her voice type, and cut vocal takes while situated between two speakers in the studio's control room with the monitor mix playing. She explained this setting to be more comfortable, noting the ability to hear herself sing and hold the microphone when moving around. Badu preferred to sing in one take rather than edit different takes together: "When I do vocals, I am singing with a certain volume in my voice. I am singing the double and triple harmonies at different volumes. You don't have to adjust it; I have already done it. We mix as we go, so by the time we put the vocals to ½-inch tape, I know it. If you touch a damn thing, I will know it." To adjust to potential audio feedback and leakage and obtain a usable take, Chavarria tried having Badu sit in an overstuffed chair six feet behind the mixing console and use alternate microphones such as a Neumann M 269 or AEA R44 ribbon microphone with Sony MDR-V900 headphones into a Furman headphone mixer. However, Badu felt she could not perceive all of her voice's frequencies with the headphones and often discarded them to move towards the studio monitors. He also considered situating her in an equilateral triangle with the two speakers, one of which would be placed out of phase in order to have the leakage cancel itself. However, according to him, the mic has to be stationary, while Badu "likes to hold the mic like an MC. She is at home as a live performer." He said of working around audio spills and adapting to Badu's methods, "We worked to make her vocals fit into the track, phase-wise ... What did work was to keep the monitors fairly low and turn the microphone out of phase, and we would move her around the room until she found a spot where the leakage was reasonable and where she felt comfortable and could hear herself. But just as often she would just sit in that chair behind the board in the A Room." == Musical style ==

'' by Miles Davis (1971). The album's music is a dense, stylistic amalgam that primarily incorporates funk, soul, and hip hop genres, as well as jazz and electronica. The New Yorker called it "a politically charged neo-soul suite with cutting-edge production", while The Independent critic Andy Gill deemed it a work of psychedelic soul. Nelson George described the record as "a complicated mesh of soul, electro sounds and references, simple and obscure ... a musically challenging album that owes much to Radiohead and Curtis Mayfield". Expanding of the loose, jam-oriented style of Worldwide Underground, it features groove-based instrumentation, murky tones, and various beats, digital glitches, and samples. minor-key melodies, and atmospheric beats. Songs on the album also incorporate experimental hip hop backing tracks and other hip hop elements in a surrealistic manner. The majority of the beats are dark, blunted, and hazy, and have been noted by music writers as conveying an urban soundscape and feeling of paranoia. Most of them were either produced or co-written by members of Sa-Ra, who were known for their sonically dissonant music, characterized by eccentric chord placements and off-time beats. Sasha Frere-Jones believed the record "isn't so much hip-hop as it is a reorganization of the historical flotsam and jetsam that were recycled and turned into hip-hop." == Lyrics and themes ==

, and unfulfilled promises of the American Dream. and scenic narrative. Abebe wrote similarly, "her keen writing about people" gives songs "much of their shape" and views that her candor helps communicate the album's "social concerns, which could otherwise sound like a laundry list of black-community struggles". == Songs ==

The opening track "Amerykahn Promise" samples the 1977 song "The American Promise" by American band RAMP as its backing track. The original song was co-written and produced by Roy Ayers, who gave Badu the original master tape for her to rework on her album. Ayers and Edwin Birdsong were inspired to write the song by President Lyndon B. Johnson's 1965 speech "The American Promise", which called for justice and equal rights in the United States. "Amerykahn Promise" features explicit political satire, The authoritative character is portrayed as a circus-barker whose smoke and mirrors presentation of the American Dream leads to contentious dialogue with Badu. (pictured in 2014). Produced by Madlib, "The Healer" is an ode to hip hop culture and a proclamation of its scope. black-on-black crime, and Hurricane Katrina. "The Cell" was produced by Husayn and features a lively, choral style and hard bop feel. Titled as a metaphor for both heredity and confinement, the song is a tableau of crime, drugs, and desperation in urban decay, streamlined by a stark story about Brenda, a character who falls victim to her environment. Cited by Chavarria as the album's most effects-heavy track, "Twinkle" features a futuristic sound, a convoluted beat, and abstract aural elements such as white noise bursts, high-pitched voices, abrasive instruments, and layers of twinkling keyboard bass. The lyrics lament the plight of the Black community and the cyclical effects on African Americans by the various failures of American social institutions such as the health care, education, and prison systems. Badu raps in the song's verse, "Children of the matrix be hittin’ them car switches / Seen some virgin Virgos hanging out with Venus bitches", followed by her singing, "They don’t know their language, they don’t know their God". Over humming keyboards, the closing minutes of the song feature a speech in the ancient African language of Mdw Ntchr, followed by a speaker's rant inspired by actor Peter Finch's own rant in the 1976 film Network. The speaker angrily laments the state of the world and the complacency of people. Philadelphia Weeklys Craig D. Linsey likened "Twinkle" to a denser version of Marvin Gaye's 1971 song "Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)". "Master Teacher" was conceived by Georgia Anne Muldrow on her Rhodes piano at Sa-Ra's Cosmic Dust Studio with Badu present and was originally intended for one of their albums. Its idyllic music blends mellow soul and glitchy hip hop, featuring a chopped sample of Curtis Mayfield's 1972 song "Freddie's Dead". The song's lyrics envision a higher degree of African-American identity. Its vocalists ask in refrain, "What if there was no niggas, only master teachers?", and answering "I stay woke", with Badu responding "I'm in the search of something new / Search inside me, searching inside you". Midway through the song, Poyser's keyboards lower the music's tempo, with a fluid, jazzy sound. "That Hump" concerns the topic of drug dependency. The closing track "Telephone" is a tribute to J Dilla, who died in 2006 from complications with blood disorder, and has themes of sorrow and hope. It serves as a departure from the preceding songs' edgier musical direction, featuring soft melodies and an acoustic feel similar to Badu's live sound. The song opens with the sound of ominous sirens, referencing J Dilla's 2006 album Donuts. The song's lyrics are based on a story told to Badu by J Dilla's mother on the day of his death. Poyser explained in an interview, "Dilla's mom told Erykah about one day when he was telling her about this dream he had where Ol'Dirty was telling him to get on a different color bus and giving him directions home". According to Poyser, the song's music was inspired by Dilla's passing: The hidden track "Honey" is a percussive, lighthearted love song that contains a sample of singer Nancy Wilson's 1978 song "I'm in Love". The track opens with a reprise of "Amerykahn Promise", with an announcer saying, "We hope you enjoyed your journey and now we’re putting control of you back to you", and a countdown leading to "Honey". According to Badu, the song is about "a lover, a fictitious character named Slim, who I'm chasing." AllMusic's Andy Kellman commented that the song is included as an unlisted track as "it doesn't fit into the album's fabric, what with its drifting, deeply sweetened, synth-squish-and-string-drift groove." == Title and packaging ==

Before New Amerykahs release, the album was tentatively called KahBa, which Badu derived from her name, as a reference to Islam and Kemetism. Badu further explained New Amerykahs title in an interview for Remix: The album's cover and interior artwork were designed by Badu and graphic artist Emek. The album's interior artwork features ominous, psychedelic, futuristic, and apocalyptic imagery. The artwork includes illustrations of a red-eyed Uncle Sam pointing a gun, robotic creatures tattooing each other, a bar code bearing the alphanumeric message "50C1AL 5Y5T3M", and a suited skeleton with a dollar sign on its skull lecturing to a headless audience from a podium that bears the pyramid image from the reverse of the Great Seal of the United States. The illustration of a soft melting fork, hypodermic needle, and spoon is an adaptation of Salvador Dalí's 1931 painting The Persistence of Memory. == Marketing and sales ==

in 2008 The album's lead single, "Honey", was released on December 11, 2007. It reached number 88 on the US Billboard Hot 100, on which it spent three weeks. On the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, it charted for 17 weeks and peaked at number 22. Badu wanted to pay homage to classic records with the video, New Amerykah Part One was released by Universal Motown Records in the United States on February 26, Badu's 37th birthday. and Badu performed songs from the album on VH1 Soul's SoulStage. The record was released in several European countries on February 29, the United Kingdom on March 3, and Japan on March 12. The Japanese and UK editions feature the bonus track "Real Thang". It was also released as a double vinyl LP on March 11, and on USB stick format. Of the accompanying USB stick, Badu told the Chicago Tribune that "I might as well give a digital world what they need and what they want. And that's to just cut out the middle man, which is the CD, which will be extinct, I would say, in about seven to eight years — right along with the record labels." In the first week of release, New Amerykah Part One debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 chart, selling 125,000 copies in the US. It was Badu's best opening sales week since her debut album Baduizm in 1997. In its second week, the album sold 41,466 copies, and 35,000 in its third week. It spent 15 weeks on the Billboard 200 and 29 weeks on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. In the United Kingdom, New Amerykah Part One charted at number 55 on the British albums chart, on which it spent one week. In France, it debuted at number 49 and spent 11 weeks on the French albums chart. In Switzerland, it debuted at number 10 and spent six weeks on the Swiss chart. In Poland, it reached number nine and spent eight weeks on the Polish chart. The album's highest international charting was number five in Sweden, where it charted for seven weeks. == Critical reception ==

New Amerykah Part One was met with widespread critical acclaim. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional critics, the album received an average score of 83, based on 27 reviews. Slant Magazines Eric Henderson said it is a powerful listen that stands as Badu's most musically ambitious work, Within the context of the late 2000s' resurgence in classic soul styles across American and British music, Badu's experimental and militant efforts on the album were viewed by The Observers Steve Yates as "a giant leap forward". Rolling Stone magazine's Christian Hoard found the singer's socially conscious lyrics unexceptional and too ambiguous, while regarding some songs as "absent-minded doodles". At the end of 2008, New Amerykah Part One was ranked on several critics' lists of the year's best records, including the Associated Press (number 1), The Austin Chronicle (number 9), Entertainment Weekly (number 5), New York (number 8), The New York Times (number 4), The A.V. Club (number 8), PopMatters (number 4), Slant Magazine (number 8), and The Guardian (number 9). Spin ranked the album number 12 on its year-end list, calling it "laptop R&B that uses hip-hop as its muse". while Rhapsody named it the decade's best R&B record. In 2019, it was voted 92nd in The Guardians "The 100 best albums of the 21st century", which polled 45 music journalists. == Track listing ==

(add.) Additional production (co.) Co-producer Sample credits • "Amerykahn Promise" contains a sample of "American Promise" (1977) performed by RAMP. • "My People" contains a sample of "My People...Hold On" (1972) performed by Eddie Kendricks. • "Honey" contains a sample of "I'm in Love" (1978) performed by Nancy Wilson. == Personnel ==

Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes. • William Allen – arranger (track 1) • Roy Ayers – arranger (track 1) • Chris Athens – mastering (track 11) • Erykah Badu – art direction, design, executive producer, percussion (tracks 4, 6), re-recording engineer (1), remixing (1), talking drum (4), vocal arrangement (3, 5), vocals (All tracks) • Marc Baptiste – photography • Kyledidthis – art direction and design • Chris Bell – recording engineer (tracks 2–11) • Bilal – guest vocals (tracks 2, 4, 7–8) • Edwin Birdsong – arranger (track 1) • Steve "Thunder Cat" Bruner – bass (tracks 3, 6, 8–9) • Mike "Chav" Chavarria – additional music programming (tracks 2, 7), additional vocals (5), co-executive producer, sound effects (2, 7), guitar (10), recording engineer (1–9), mixing (all tracks) • Shanti Das – marketing • Mike Elizondo – bass (track 10) • James Patrick Green – engineer (track 1) • Alfredo Gray – additional vocals (track 5) • Roy Hargrove – horns (track 3) • Shafiq Husayn – arp strings (track 8), associate producer, recording engineer (8), keyboards, music programming (8) • Jay Electronica – associate producer • Jef Lee Johnson – guitar (tracks 3, 7) • Ronald Albert Johnson – engineer (track 1) • Om'Mas Keith – recording engineer (tracks 8–9), keyboards (9), synthesizer bass (9), trap drums (9) • Alex Kruse – assistant recording engineer (track 9) • Josef Leimberg – percussion, talking drum (track 4) • Georgia Anne Muldrow – freestyled lyrics (track 8), keyboards, vocals (8) • James Poyser – keyboards (track 3, 9–10) • RAMP – vocals (track 1) • Karriem Riggins – trap drums (track 9) • Omar Rodríguez-López – guitar (track 7) • Kay K Rosemond – additional vocals (track 5) • Tom Soares – additional engineering (track 5), mixing (tracks 1–10), re-recording engineer (1), vocal re-recording (10) • Jerry Soloman – engineer (track 1) • Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson – drums (track 10) • Ty & Kory – additional vocals (track 8) == Charts ==

Weekly charts Year-end charts == See also ==