The central themes of her songs on the 14 track album are independence and leaving toxic relationships.
In 1997, Badu gave birth to her first child, Seven, as well as released her debut album, Baduizm (1997). It is quite evident that Gipson’s strength as a single mother was admired by and passed down to her children because Badu’s music radiates feminism and female power.
After spending a few semesters at the university, she decided that her true passion was in writing her own songs, which is what led her to eventually drop out of school to concentrate on music full time. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, and later went on to study theatre at Grambling State University. By the age of 14, Badu was freestyling for a local radio station and participating in local rap battles in the small hip-hop scene that existed in Dallas at the time. Her Godmother, Gwen Hargrove, along with her uncle and founder of TBAAL, always showed their support by giving her voice lessons and finding her opportunities to showcase her talent. She started at the age of four, singing and dancing at the Dallas Theatre Center and the Black Academy of Arts and Letters (TBAAL). The one thing that she was always serious about, however, was singing. During an interview on The Breakfast Club radio show, Badu described herself as a mischievous child, always attempting to be at the center of attention with playful antics such as teasing her siblings. An artist that ironically tends to be overlooked by younger generations, Badu has changed the neo-soul genre in many ways, but only through her evolution as an artist as well as her collaboration with fellow artists.īadu was born Erica Abi Wright in Dallas, Texas and was raised by her mother, Kolleen Gipson, alongside her brother Eevin and sister Nayrok for a majority of her life. Some artists even claim to turn to Badu for advice, such as Drake, which developed into a solid friendship between the two. Many artists cite Badu as a huge inspiration for them, even if they don’t fall into the same genre category. Known as the godmother of soul and the embodiment of “wokeness” before the word the word was even coined, Erykah Badu remains as one of the most influential artists in the neo-soul genre.