She actually introduced me to these people at this famed art gallery. “This is where musicians, mostly rappers, would gather from about 9 o’clock to about 2 in the morning,” Chinwah remembers. I had my fingers crossed because it wasn't something we had ever done.”īadu premiered “Certainly” at the now-closed Onasile Gallery in Deep Ellum, months before the release of Baduizm. “I played her the track for ‘Certainly,’ and she loved it because the bass was booming. “That song has a lot of personality,” Chinwah says. This helps her when it comes to creating music and being able to make something up on the fly.”Įarly reviews of Baduizm compared Badu’s vocal stylings to those of Billie Holiday, though Chinwah says he wasn’t sure how Badu felt about those comparisons. “Since this was her first non hip-hop project, ‘Certainly’ and other songs have two approaches," Chinwah says. "We have to remember she's still a rapper first. Others interpret the track’s subject as a cynical woman who changes her stance on love when a man comes along and inspires a new outlook.Ĭhinwah created “Certainly” using an upright bass and piano. “Certainly” and its reprise “Certainly (Flipped It)” are often interpreted by fans as being about Africans being forced to change their ways and assimilate to American culture after being brought to America. Oftentimes on Baduizm, Badu’s signature duality is left open to interpretation. The album closes with a reprise of this track, a choice Badu made to reflect her duality, according to Chinwah. “I ain’t thinking about you, I came to hear my drummer play / boom-klat-boom-klat,” she sings over rim shots, before taking us deep into her neo-soul manifesto.
The record opens with Badu finding joy in simple drum and piano patterns. I played piano, upright bass, those kinds of things.” I didn't have to pull from crates, I didn’t have to sample anything, because I could actually play. “I had an idea of what she wanted to do because she had already made several references to the types of instruments that she wanted to use. “ felt comfortable enough with me spearheading, having both bookends of the project,” Chinwah says. Two years later, when Badu was signed with Universal Records and working on Baduizm, she enlisted Chinwah to produce the tracks “Rim Shot (Intro),” “Rim Shot (Outro),” “Certainly” and “Certainly (Flipped It).” The album never saw a physical release, but she would remember, too. When he produced a gospel album in 1994, he remembered, and the record included Badu singing background vocals. At the time, Badu appeared on KNON as a hip-hop artist, and she'd told Chinwah she was interested in creating R&B music. At the time, his credits mostly consisted of work on hip-hop tracks, but with his aptitude for various instruments, Chinwah was beginning to gravitate toward jazz, gospel and R&B sounds. Producer Madukwu Chinwah first met Badu at KNON radio “in the '80s,” as he recalls. Recorded in various studios across Philadelphia, New York City and Dallas, Baduizm’s 14 tracks of gospel-influenced R&B vocals over live instrumentation launched an era of neo-soul that maintains its impact 25 years later. Not the edible food … perhaps some food for thought.” These were some of the words we first heard from the artist as she introduced herself to the world via tales of love, existentialism and spirituality. The album also includes the bass playing of the legendary Ron Carter- famously labelled the most recorded jazz bassist in history.On “Appletree,” a cut from her debut album Baduizm, Erykah Badu speaks some gospel: “I have some food in my bag for you. Recorded across studios in Dallas, Philadelphia, and New York City between January and October 1996, the album was produced and written by Erykah and a combination of hailed names, including The Roots' Ahmir Khalib " Questlove" Thompson, Maduwku Chinwah, Jaborn Jamal, Ike Lee III, Bob Power, James Poyser and her cousin trumpeter Robert Bradford, amongst others.Įrykah had worked closely with Robert Bradford before, as she toured with him and recorded a demo project called Country Cousins. Kedar decided to sign Erykah to his label Kedar Entertainment, which was linked with the Universal group. However, she decided to leave before completing her course to follow her passion in music.Įrykah's big break came when she opened a show for D'Angelo in 1994, which led her to be spotted and subsequently picked up by D'Angelo's manager at the time Kedar Massenburg.
Washington High School - recognised for its creative studies - before studying theatre at Grambling State University.