Image via Complex Original
"This is a mean thing to ask someone," says Ms. Erykah Badu when asked to run through her 10 favorite albums. Complex usually asks artists to list their 25 favorite albums, but seeing as how we had a limited amount of time with the host of the 2015 Soul Train Music Awards, 10 will suffice. Honestly, anything would suffice when it comes to Badu, the Texas-reared musician who, for nearly two decades, has carved a mystical niche for herself suffused with soul, R&B, funk, and whatever else she was feeling at the time of recording. Badu is a flower child all grown up with pop sensibilities who has never taken her finger off the pulse of what is poppin'. It's what allowed her to remain relevant all these years while her contemporaries have fallen by the wayside, and why she was able to easily create the best cover of Drake's"Hotline Bling," a track primed for her new mixtape, But You Can't Use My Phone. Luckily, Badu went two steps forward and gave us her 12 favorite projects. If you ever wondered what informed Badu's eclectic sensibilities, take a read below of her favorite albums.
Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon (1973)
"The cohesiveness of the record, the message which is: evolving through experimentation. Or the mind being freer than the rest of the population. The drums, sonically, are the best drums I have ever heard in my life."
Joni Mitchell, Blue (1971)
"She has perfect pitch and one of the most soothing voices I’ve ever heard. The music is haunting."
Nas, Illmatic (1994)
"This album came out at a time in my life when I really needed it. It was like medicine to me. His voice…. One particular ingredient was AZ’s verse on 'Life’s a Bitch.' The whole thing was refreshing. And DJ Premier is a maestro. I can’t pick a favorite song from the album—it’s like picking your kids! But I love AZ’s verse: 'Visualizing the realism of life and actuality fuck who’s the baddest a person’s status depends on salary.' The flow is really nice."
Andre 3000, The Love Below (2003)
"Very innovative. Creative. Brave. Sacrificial. Heartfelt and honest. Just beautiful piece of work. [Erykah sings: 'Niggas need to quit acting all hard and shit before they get they ass whooped. Slap the fuck out cha, everybody….'] It’s brilliant. Just brilliant."
Mary McCreary, Jezebel (1974)
"She was married to Leon Russell. Then she became Mary Russell, and they had lots of children. Mary McCreary was a good friend of my mother and that album, Jezebel—check it out if you haven’t heard of it. It’s a rarity; what me and Questlove would call 'goodies.'"
Earth, Wind & Fire, That's the Way of the World (1975)
"The message is poignant and necessary. It spans time. It’s beyond brilliant to me. Just the lyrics: 'A child is born with a heart of gold, the weight of the world, makes his heart so cold.' You know? It’s just a really beautiful album. I love it."
Jodeci, Forever My Lady (1991)
"I was a sophomore in college, and for me at that time it just felt so good. Sometimes it’s just about the feeling. It’s not really about what was said. Or what was on their mind. The feeling was just so good. It felt like college sex. [Erykah sings: 'Baby, won’t you just staaaayy, for a little while.'] Everyone was playing that. It meant a lot to me at that time. K-Ci’s voice is like a deacon, it’s magnificent. He’s preaching to us."
Prince, Sign o' the Times (1987)
"First of all, it’s a double album. He gave us so much variety. Not one song sounds like the next. From 'The Ballad of Dorothy Parker,' to 'Adore,' to 'Starfish and Coffee.' There are just so many good songs, so many good things. I don’t know if this is peak Prince. Maybe. Yeah, maybe."
Prince, For You (1977)
"For You is beautiful. It’s just so much stuff again. Even the little interludes. I used to always sing backgrounds and let Prince sing lead. The arrangements, the layers, the vocal harmonies, the stacking, the progressions, the fifths, the thirds. Just him as a being. It’s amazing, amazing, amazing, amazing to me. That’s why it’s one of my favorites."
Prince, Controversy (1981)
"There was nothing like it in the world. There’s not another album like this in the world. At that time or now. It was everything: It was political, it was social, it was soft porn, it was romance, it was religion. It was everything. It’s one of the top five albums for me. You see how my voice is getting really quiet when I talk about it? That’s ’cause I’m not strong enough to talk about it. I’m not worthy. Prince wore 'rude boy' on the Controversy album, on his button. I looked everywhere to find that pin. I was a stan."
Vanity 6, Vanity 6 (1982)
"'Nasty Girl.' I was very young at that time. I had to be in the seventh or sixth grade or something. But I understood. I know every song on that album by heart till this day. 'Make-up,' 'If a Girl Answers (Don’t Hang Up)'—I was into that, I was a rude girl. I was in ecstasy, going through puberty. The hairs stood up on the back of my neck. My hands tingled, my toes tingled. I wanted someone to understand what I was feeling, but I couldn’t explain it. So I had to wait until my album came out to express how I felt about it."
Deniece Williams, This Is Niecy (1976)
"This album coincidentally was also produced by Kalimba who is Maurice White from Earth, Wind & Fire. I just love that sound and the messages in the music. As a matter of fact, on Rejoice, Deniece Williams and the Emotions sang one of the same songs penned by Maurice White. At that time it was just something that people did, it was like hip-hop. It was a good song, you get on it. Someone sings, someone else sings it, and it’s another interpretation. Kind of like when I did 'Hotline Bling,' you know, everybody gets on it. An OG told me that hip-hop the word came from the notion that if we heard something hip we hopped on it. And that’s what it’s about. It’s one of the biggest forms of flattery."