Album Review: Erykah Badu – “New Amerykah Pt. 2 – Return Of The Ankh”

14 years ago view-show 906,543

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There are plenty of artists that fail at maintaining their relevancy enough to keep their career going.  Most of the artists that do usually fall victim to doing something outside of themselves, like a song with (insert current hot rapper/producer here).  Erykah Badu, much like her baby daddy(s) Andre 3000, Jay Electronica & The D.O.C., stays futuristic with her style and exhibits a winning formula. Now that Ms. Badu has literally showed her ass in her latest video, the next question is does the music match the hype.  Part 2 of New Amerykah returns us the familiar hip-hop soul that made her that weird chic that everyone loved.

“Window Seat” is not only the first single/video for the album, but it sets the tone at the beginning of the album along with “20 Feet Tall”, allowing us to ease into a joyride of quality music.  “Turn Me Away (Get Munny)” flips the sample from Jr. Mafia’s anthem into one of the best songs on the album. “Gone Baby Don’t Be Long”, “Umm Hmm” and “Love” all are funky with familiar underlying hip-hop breakbeats for that extra kick.  That “craziness” that Combat Jack so eloquently put into words the other day in his post (read here) is put into her own words on “Fall In Love (Your Funeral)” , quoting Biggie’s words from “Warning” – “It’s gonna be alot of slow singing/and flower bringing/if my burglar alarm starts ringing“. The other incredible feat is that there are no features – just a bunch of Baduizm.

Like most great albums, the drawback with this one is the length.  With really only nine full songs, we only can wish that Pt.2 could last a little longer.  The good thing is that the songs are throwbacks to the type of R&B/Soul songs that lasted longer than 3:30.  She included “Jump Up In the Air” and “Strawberry Incense” on the iTunes version for all you supporters out there.  So light one (or two) up, dim the lights and get right in the New Amerykah!

Buy Erykah Badu – New Amerykah Pt. 2 – Return Of The Ankh

Rating: 4.5 Mics

45-mics