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During a recent international performance, Erykah Badu paid tribute to her fellow Soulquarian, D’Angelo.
According to concert reviews and footage online, Badu spoke about the process of death in her heartfelt tribute. “When you cease to exist on this planet, the mere thought of you keeps you alive. We will always see you,” she paused, then she called out, “D’Angelo!”
Badu did a version of “On & On” that blended into D’Angelo’s “Jonz In My Bonz.” She also did “Shit, Damn, Motherfucker” from his 1995 album Brown Sugar.
Last week, Badu appeared on Popcast, where she spoke about encountering D’Angelo’s music for the first time and building a kinship.
I first met D’Angelo’s music, I was working in a coffee shop in Dallas, Texas called Grinders on a street called Greenville Avenue and somebody was playing D’Angelo’s new album, Brown Sugar. I heard it and I was like, ‘what in what?’ It was just so refreshing to me because I was also working on music and I really wanted to meet him. I wanted to make something with him. And all of this just happened serendipitously.
Yeah it happened like that because the next month I went to an event called South by Southwest. Everybody who is get started kind of starts there in that era. And I played some songs and I was passing out my demo. It was a cassette tape and a white binder, three ring, with some typed out lyrics and photocopied pictures and I passed them out. I only had eight and I guess I gave one of them to the right person. Her name was Tammy Cobbs. She was managing Mobb Deep. And she goes, ‘I have a friend that I’m going to hand this to.’ And the friend was Kedar [Massenburg.] She handed it to Kedar. Kedar and I started to talk and then he goes, ‘Well, I managed D’Angelo.’ At that time, I really thought I was really on the right path.
I manifested it. Actually, that’s the truth. I I believed it really hardly and nobody I didn’t have anyone to kill the dream, you know? I just believe the things I believe and kept them to myself. And they just began to happen one thing after the other. I met D’Angelo. I opened for D’Angelo through Kedar in in Dallas and he signed me that day and D and I have been in communication since then. We’ve been really good friends since then.
For the full interview, you can watch it below.
While Badu is wrapping up her tour overseas, we’ve been patiently waiting for her Abi and Alan project and circled the date for when she returns to the Dallas area in December to celebrate 25 years of Mama’s Gun. Tickets are still available for the show at The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory on Ticketmaster.
