Customer Reviews

Erykah Badu: The First Lady of Neo Soul

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There was nobody else like Erykah Badu when her song On and On hit the airwaves in 1997. The Texas native embraced her African heritage with large, colorful headwraps and beautiful jewelry. She grew up admiring the music of Billie Holiday, Diana Ross, Chaka Khan, Anita Baker, and Aretha Franklin and those influences stood out in her own work. Over a decade later and Badu is still a unique figure.

Joel McIver's detailed portrait of the singer takes a look at the diva's early years as Erica Wright, the oldest of three children, from South Dallas. Inspired by her mother Kolleen, the little girl performed at the Dallas Theatre Centre and later graduated from Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing Arts. Erica dropped the 'ica' for a "y" and "kah" (for "the inner self") and "Badu" because it was her favorite word to scat.

Stripping away her "slave name" and dropping out of Grambling State University, she set her sights on the music industry and was soon signed with Kedar Massenburg, formerly of Motown Records. The rest as they say is history.

McIver's book is well written and always on point. It never meanders or drags in parts. Everything from Erykah trying to build a relationship with her father after he walked out on her family when she was young and her painful breakup from Andre 3000 of Outkast is intriguing. Pick it up.

A very well written book on a great artist. Must have for those who like Badu and music biographies.

I adore Erykah Badu. I really wanted a peek into her soul. You won't find anything even remotely like that here. I think they picked the wrong biographer to write this. The first part of the book when the author goes on and on about Dallas, it really put me off. But I hung in there, thought maybe he was just laying some brickwork for later, more meaningful insights. But those never came. The majority of his background work came from a Dallas Morning News reporter who admittedly never knew her name until she was selling and famous.

And when the author started in with his unfortunate misunderstanding of the music genres of Soul, R&B, Funk, and all, I completely discounted what he had to say. He doesn't know and I feel it was completely beyond his understanding. He tried to go too far beyond his knowledge and failed.

Maybe some day someone who truly LOVES and understands her music will write her biography. Nikki Giovanni wrote something to the effect, I hope no white person ever has cause to write about me because they won't understand. I honestly feel this applies here. Unfortunately.