Let's face it, modern day soul & R&B is kind of in a creative rut with a few exceptions. Erykah Badu is one of those exceptions. She continues to push the boundaries on every album she releases. Currently, she is working with Flying Lotus on her next album.
I was always curious about Badu's creative process, and what inspires her. Lucky for me, the folks at the Red Bull Music Academy hosted Erykah Badu for a lecture on her professional life and her creative processes.
Erykah Badu needs little introduction. Her seminal works like 'Baduizm' and the 'New AmErykah' series have successively upped the ante in terms of what can be done within the soul spectrum. Erykah fuses cosmic b-girl bravado with the forward-thinking sounds of producers like the Soulquarians, Madlib, and more recently, Academy grad Flying Lotus, to create a sonically varied body of work – selling millions of albums in the process. She also heads up her own record label, Control FreaQ, and has even been caught on the ones and twos recently, under her moniker DJ Lo Down Loretta Brown. Watch her tell the story to Eothen 'Egon' Alapatt at the Red Bull Music Academy 2011 in Madrid.
You can watch the entire two hour lecture below. So grab your favorite beverage and some snacks and enjoy.
