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If Lil Wayne is from Mars, then Erykah Badu is the high priestess of Venus.
It's a cosmic bummer that the syrup-soaked rapper and the future-funk diva hadn't thought to pair up before Badu's new single, "Jump in the Air." Originally a cut from her upcoming "New Amerykah Part Two: Return of the Ankh" album, the duo's collaboration leaked and was subsequently released as a Web-only track, accompanied by one acid trip of a music video, in which Wayne's and Badu's heads float and multiply. (Badu describes it as an "Erykahleidoscope.") Wayne raps about going "nuts like a danish" and vanishing into thin air while Badu howls and ululates, beckoning the listener to "come fly with us" over a sample of Parliament Funkadelic's "Hydraulic Pump." Viral music videos don't get any weirder -- or really, more genius -- than this.
Erykah Badu Goes Psychedlic With Lil Wayne In 'Jump' Video
"No one can say anything negative about it, because it's just fun," Badu says of the song. "That's all it's meant to be."
"Jump in the Air" (now retitled "Jump Up in the Air and Stay There") is no longer on "New Amerykah Part Two" because Badu is a woman of her word. In December, she gathered with Universal Motown president Sylvia Rhone, Jay Electronica (her longtime boyfriend and the father of her third child, Mars Merkaba) and select journalists for an album listening at New York's Chung King Studios. Over candlelight, she unveiled each track like it was sacred text and threatened to toss the album altogether if it leaked before the official street date.
Erykah Badu Unveils 'New Amerykah Part Two'
Badu hasn't performed any of the unreleased material live, either, instead performing catalog tracks and a take on Snoop Dogg's raunchiest party anthem, "Ain't No Fun," on a string of recent West Coast dates. When she explains her reasoning behind this to Billboard, she's just returned home to Dallas, where she raises her children: 12-year-old son Seven Sirius, 5-year-old daughter Puma Sabti and 1-year-old Mars.
"The Age of Aquarius is a whirlwind, baby," Badu says. "I can say, 'No pictures, no video,' but everything is a video camera now. Because of the kind of artist I am, I don't want to lose the boutiqueness or the exclusivity of the music. The element of surprise is a true element for an artist, just like earth, wind, fire and water."
Due March 30, "New Amerykah Part Two" is Badu's fifth studio album and first since 2008's "New Amerykah Part One: 4th World War," which found Badu riffing on politics, drawing from jazz, hip-hop and funk and sticking with mostly electronic production to freer and freakier effect than on her 2003 release, "Worldwide Underground."
"New Amerykah Part One" landed on many music critics' year-end lists and sold 360,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan -- Badu's lowest total of her career. Her 1997 breakout debut, "Baduizm," remains her best-selling, with 2.6 million copies sold. What's helped the singer maintain her relevance through the years -- namely, her uncompromising far-outness -- could also be why longtime fans have occasionally had trouble keeping up.
"We got flak over 'New Amerykah Part Two' because it wasn't a traditional Badu album," says Kay K Rosemond, an A&R exec at Universal Motown who's worked closely with Badu on all of her studio albums. "The thought was, 'Why wouldn't we give fans a classic Badu album now? We're going to lose them.' But ultimately, there's a piece of art for every season."
Badu originally planned to release her "New Amerykah" projects as a double-album -- she describes "Part One" as the left side of her brain and "Part Two" as the right -- but split the work with the release of "Part One" in 2008. She kept working on "Part Two" with a host of underground musicians and producers, from Madlib, Shafiq Husayn and 9th Wonder to Karieem Riggins, Georgia Ann Muldrow and the Roots' James Poyser, who produced the lead single, "Window Seat."
"As long as I have time to keep working on the album, that's as long as I'm going to be working on it," Badu says. "I'm always finishing until the last minute."
FLIGHT CONTROL
More than any other subsequent album, the spirit of "Part Two" recalls that of "Baduizm." Musically, it's as progressive as "Part One," but Badu sings less about politics and more about romance; she sounds vulnerable. On the rapturous "Fall in Love," Badu warns: "You don't want to fall in love with me/There's gonna be a lot of slow singing and flower bringing, if my burglar alarm starts ringing," in a nod to a lyric by late rapper the Notorious B.I.G. (Traces of Biggie also appear on "Get Money," named after the Junior Mafia song of the same name but more directly harking back to its original sample, Sylvia Strippling's soul classic "Can't Turn Me Away.")
On "Window Seat," Badu sings, "I just want a chance to fly, a chance to cry, and a long bye-bye/But I need you to want me," over an earthy stomp and slinking piano melody. The track enters Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart at No. 47 this issue, the best debut of the year so far and Badu's second-best career start. Delta Airlines has signed on to use the song as the boarding music for its flights.
Aside from "Window Seat," "Jump" is the main piece of content that Badu is using to entice fans to buy her new album. Different versions of the song are being recorded and rolled out one by one through March 30. Each features a different MC, and the list of names is enough hype on its own: Raekwon, Big Boi, David Banner, Redman, stic.man of Dead Prez, Snoop Dogg, Mos Def and Jay Electronica. Like the original "Jump," these versions will live online only, and such top hip-hop blogs as Okayplayer.com and NahRight.com will premiere each one exclusively.
"The Internet has afforded us with a way to not limit ourselves to the album project," Badu says. "There are so many ways to put out music now without having it just being a part of an album."
Badu worked with Xavier Jernigan, senior director of digital and traditional marketing at Universal Motown, to devise the album's marketing campaign. Dubbed (((333))), it stems from Badu's fascination with numerology and centers on the release date for "Part Two": March 30, 2010, or 3/3/3 (2 + 0 + 1 + 0 = 3).
"The numerology aspect of the campaign is totally Erykah Badu and who she is," Jernigan says.
"Jump" and its music video were scheduled to premiere at 3:33 p.m. through Badu's Twitter account, which directed her followers to the newly launched ErykahBadu.com. Every subsequent piece of content will be launched at 3:33 as well. (It can occur at a.m. or p.m. and the time zones also vary because, as the label duly notes, "Erykah is worldwide.") Even Badu's performance on "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon," scheduled for March 3, fits neatly into the strategy.
"The number has always been in my life -- every time I look at the clock it seems to be there, whether it's a.m. or p.m.," Badu says with a laugh. "I look at it as a sign that I'm on the right path."
Though Badu has an executive assistant and tour manager, she's never had a manager, and she does everything from conceptualize and direct her videos to style her outfits and handwrite her albums' thank-you notes.
"She's adept in the digital realm, clear about her imaging and video presentation and able to come with the music, with the strategic plan, with the look," says Sylvia Rhone, who describes "Part Two" as "vintage Erykah."
Artists who keep this level of control are often described as high maintenance, but Badu says, "It's not going to stop me from doing what I do. It doesn't worry me to the point of 'Should I?' There's nothing freaky about controlling your image or your art, especially if you have the understanding and talent to do it."
"Erykah is crazy like a fox, but she knows what she's doing," "Window Seat" producer Poyser says. "The road that she takes is not the normal road that people walk down to get from A to Z. But she always gets to where she's going."
MAKING CONNECTIONS
Threes aside, it's two Ts that keep the Erykah Badu machine pressing on these days: Twitter and touring. All announcements surrounding "Part Two" come directly from her Twitter account, which, according to the label, has averaged an increase of 15,000 followers per week since the (((333))) campaign started. "We don't want anyone else to scoop her on her own content," Jernigan says.
Badu was a devout Twitter user long before the Ashton Kutcher/CNN race to 1 million followers, and she gained notoriety for taking the concept of oversharing to a new level by live-tweeting giving birth. "Home birth, no painkillers, about five hours, she was a little past due date, but I didn't mind waiting," one of her posts read. Electronica partook as well, tweeting, "I see the head, full of hair."
"I got so close to the little Twitter community that it was important to me they knew what was happening," Badu says. "We laugh and we talk and we cry ...and it's never like, 'This is the superstar and these are the fans.' It makes me feel less like someone put on a pedestal and more like a human being."
At her live shows, which Badu describes as "another form of therapy" like Twitter, she tries to create the same feeling of connectedness. "I don't drink or smoke or take any kind of drugs, so I'm almost like the lightweight mad bitch walking around," she says. "But what those things do for other people is what performing live does for me. It's the love of my life, and it's what I do best."
Cara Lewis, a senior VP at William Morris Endeavor Entertainment, cites everything from Badu's "eclectic wardrobe" to her "eccentric vocal stylings" as the keys to her draw as a live act. In 2008 Badu grossed $2.6 million from touring and $1.2 million in 2009, according to Billboard Boxscore (see chart, below), and she plans to continue touring this summer, with her own headlining dates as well as on the revived Lilith Fair festival. Like "Part Two," Lilith will bring Badu back to the spirit of her early days: The first time she played its main stage was in 1998, a year after "Baduizm" dropped.
"I remember my life at that point and how stress-free it was," Badu says. "I was so confident, inspired and fresh. There were no expectations and there was nothing to top. I didn't know the rules. I didn't care for them -- and that's how I feel right now."
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