Erykah Badu Biography

Erykah Badu has been a star of “neo-soul” music since her 1997 debut album, Baduizm, and its hit singles “On & On” and “Tyrone.”

Making music since her teen years, Badu got her first record contract after performing as an opening act for D’Angelo.

In the first five years of her recording career, Badu won four Grammy awards. Her early records showed a vocal range and natural instinct for pop and R&B, and since then she’s blended jazz, hip-hop and soul for a distinctive sound that travels from snappy pop songs about relationships to soul-filled jams with a jazz feel.

Badu’s hit songs include “Bag Lady” from the 2000 album Mama’s Gun, and  and “Love of My Life (An Ode to Hip Hop)” recorded with one-time boyfriend Common for the movie Brown Sugar (2002).

Badu’s albums include Worldwide Underground (2003), New Amerykah Part One (2008) and New Amerykah Part Two (2010), and she has recorded with dozens of other artists, including The Roots, Wu-Tang Clan, Robert Glasper, Macy Gray and Tyler the Creator.