Mon 3 Mar, 2008
Erykah Badu's has always demonstrated Afrocetrism, higher consciousness and introspection. While her first album was perhaps the most spiritual but her music has always had a conceptual nature, layered with meaning deeper than what appears on the surface to be abstract ramblings. Over the years, Erykah’s music has become increasingly more political, with New AmErykah, Part I (4th World War) being the most political by far. However, for all her artistry and theory, one has to wonder how many will be able to decipher her message.
Like other albums before it New AmErykah is about a concept complete from the title to the album cover, from the opening song to the one that closes the album. On the cover Erykah is depicted with an afro burdened with Black fists, embryos (one of which has a bar code on its head), the all seeing eye, hypodermic needles, satellites, mutated chains flowers, the tree of life…I could go on and on in an ISpy like discovery. Metephorically speaking, the world is on Erykah’s shoulders…er…in her afro rather; an image both magnificent and unsettling.
Amerykahn Promise opens the album with a funky parody on the “American Dream.” Set to a groove that sounds like a Foxy Brown theme song, an apocalyptic voice welcomes all comers to receive 30K megawatts of power to radiate your soul and leave your valuables at the door. Between declarations of the “promise to you baby…” the voice silences a young girl asking questions, brainwashes her into submission and promises to bleed you dry while keeping you high.
In an ode to movements of struggle past and present, Soldier is an expression of Erykah’s yearning for a modern movement against eroding civil rights and tolerance. From the boys fighting in Iraq, to workers on strike, to Muslims selling "Final Call" periodicals, to those victimized by the broken levies in Louisiana; Erykah addresses a wide variety of social issues. In her signature artsy way, Erykah reveals her militancy and pays homage to Harriett Tubman who led people to freedom, sometimes at gunpoint.
To the folks on the picket line
Don't stop 'til you change they mind
Got love for my folks
Baptized when the levies broke
We gone keep marchin' on
Until we hear that freedom song
And if you thinkin' 'bout turning back
I got the shot gun on your back…
Twinkle is an exasperated call for the oppressed masses to wake up, get angry and organize a revolution set to the sparse synth of a staccato rim shot, the pop of a kick drum and a scale on keys that seems to glimmer and fade. Erykah laments the ignorance that keeps people oppressed. The result is an almost jarring duality of Erykah’s love for her people and desire for them to shine. However their sparkle is stamped out by their lack of knowledge and never comes full force.
They don’t know their language
They don’t know their god
They take what their given
Even when it feels odd
They say their grandfathers and grandmothers worked hard for nothing
’Cause we still in this ghetto
So they end up in prisons…
When listening to this album you know that Erykah’s goal is enlightenment, which sometimes comes through loud and clear. There are others times however, when one has to wonder if her commentary is lost in all her rhetorical questions, abstractions and artistry. It brings to mind a question asked on a previous album – what good do the words do if no one understands what she is saying? While intellectuals and conceptual thinkers will no doubt enjoy peeling away the layers to decode the messages contained within New AmErykah, Part I (4th World War), there will be many others (masses in fact) on whom her message will be lost. Unfortunately, it is a message those masses need to hear.
Image credit: Erykah-Badu.com
No Song Unsung Blog says:
New Amerykah: Taking Us To a New Level
From the moment I first heard Erykah Badu’s unique voice over ten years ago, I was inspired. Her music came at a time when I was on my own soul journey and everything she said resonated with me - physically, mentally, and spiritually. Lyrics to…
Melonie (Workerette) says:
I confess I haven’t heard anything by Erykah Badu other than the CD I have from many years back - but now you’ve gotten me thinking of it and how my ex used to laugh over the song “Tyrone”….. and how it later became what I played right before signing the paperwork to kick his cheating self to the curb. heh heh.
I’m gonna have that stuck in my head all day now. *chuckle* THANKS!
Kimberlee Morrison says:
That’s funny Melonie! Tyrone was definitely a “kick ‘em to the curb” anthem, wasn’t it?
This album is much different from the one that had Tyrone on it for sure.