It's a great way to get familiar with the struggle of Badu in love, life, and more. The lyrics are also so special, as she details 'losing her way' on the journey of life. The music is so flawless, and the beat touches your soul without a doubt. Badu shines on every song, but her greatest song ever to me will remain the Dilla assisted production 'Didn't Cha Know'. It feels like her most personal album honestly, as you would assume these topics she wrote about were all internal instead of just intended as universal ideas. Badu created something that truly touched on topics such as self worth and esteem, police brutality, and the breakdown of relationships, along with her own emotional journey and soul searching. I've covered it in a separate article before, and as I said then, this is her greatest work. The 'Master Teacher' track is especially poignant, as Georgia Anne Muldrow shows up to give it an extra boost. My two favorite songs on this album are 'Master Teacher' and the somber 'Telephone', as you can feel the soul of Badu shining through during these records. Reaching out to Dilla before his death, Questlove, 9th Wonder, and Madlib, she set out to make something special and this album would turn out to be exactly that.įrom songs like 'The Healer', the smooth 'Me', the booming 'Soldier', and 'That Hump', Badu let her creativity shine through yet again and the results are immaculate. Years later, after another child and finding inspiration, she arrives at this album, which to me is a near classic. She felt she needed to make music that was game changing and as she went on her Frustrated Artists tour, she would let the title of the tour speak for where she was as an artist. This album came at a time when Badu had no creative inspiration and was trapped in writer's block. I do need to revisit this album once more and see if anything changes in my opinion.

However, this is like ranking Sade's worst album or Maxwell's worst album in the sense that it's a good release, but just can't measure up to previous standards. The album has nothing but quality music, but it just pales in comparison to the first edition of the New Amerykah series and it doesn't hold up to her others as well. The best song on this album remains 'Umm Hmm', the lovely Madlib produced gem, which is one of my favorite all time Badu songs. The album was met with loads of fanfare to her attention grabbing video for 'Window Seat', but outside of that, I don't believe this project was noteworthy in the mainstream.

It's not bad in any way, but this one is missing something honestly. I think if talking album releases, it is her overall worst, but it's still a solid album. Aside from a few songs on this album, I wasn't truly invested in this project.

Erykah badu honey slow