Erykah Badu, Beyonce, Charli XCX
Pitchfork #42 - 40
#42 Erykah Badu, New Amerykah Part Two: Return of the Ankh (2010)
Rating: 2
This is an extremely chilled-out R&B record. Badu got her first laptop computer as a Christmas gift from Questlove in 2004. Her son taught her how to use GarageBand and set up a home digital recording studio.
She loved it. She started collaborating online with big name producers, including Questlove, Madlib, and J Dilla, recording demo after demo and sharing them. She booked over 70 different song demos, with the intent to select and spread them out over a trilogy of “New Amerykah” albums. This one is number 2, from twelve years ago. This is her most recent album in fact, which means #3 hasn’t shown up yet.
She was already well-established before this, her fifth album, which appeared just in time to qualify for this decade’s list. She’s an acclaimed co-founder of the “neo-soul” movement in the ‘90s and 2000s, her name often spoken alongside D’Angelo, Maxwell, and Lauryn Hill. It was a fusion of producer-driven 80s drum-machine R&B with ‘70s funk and 2000s electronica.
In this album, Eyrkah Badu sounds like a very relaxed version of this genre. She sings with lots of improvised “uhh” and “nnn”s The lyrics are mostly about love and feelings, some smoove-inspired spirit. Some of it even has a demo-like improvised feel, including the clearly-on-the-fly fragment “You Loving Me,” which ends with her saying “That’s terrible, isn’t it,” and chuckling sweetly.
There’s also a lot of sampling of old funky grooves, it’s a key to the vibe. The music is centered on the hooks, definitely not the lyrics. The song “Umm Hmm” sounds downright Kanye-like to me, with a digitally manipulated rip of an obscure funky hook, in this case from Leon “Ndugu” Chancler’s “Take Some Time.”
My favorite groove is “Gone Baby, Don’t Be Long,” which directly samples, of all things, a 1979 song from Wings, “Arrow Through Me” - (arguably Paul McCartney’s funkiest song ever, WAY more Stevie Wonder-ish than “Ebony and Ivory”.)
There’s fun in here. There is a semi-ironic gold digger motif - her most popular song from this album is “Turn Me Away (Get MuNNy)”:
Oooh can't lie to you honey
I just want ya money
Hi, I'm Sunny Bunny
Don't, run from me tryin to
Get away, just, say, o-kay
Cause munny I want you bad, la-la, la-la
And plenty of sex energy in “Love”
Never ever met another lover quite like you
Thought I fell in love with Superman, it's true
Kryptonite can't make you come up off that thang
Baby baby, I'm about to go insane
Though she has a world-music stage name, she was born and raised Erica Wright in Dallas, Texas. She picked the stage last name from her favorite scat sound. She attended The Black Academy of Arts and Letters (TBAAL), founded by her uncle, from the age of 4. (And where she has a live show coming up in two weeks)
She went to a performing arts high school and then studied theater at HBCU Grambling State. Her demo tape got her noticed and connected with D’Angelo, which launched her career and made her part of the Soulquarians circle with Mos Def, Q-Tip, Common, and others.
She got in trouble once (and paid a fine) for the music video she made for “Window Seat” on this album. It’s an un-permitted, rogue, single-take video of Badu strolling in slow motion in Dealey Plaza in Dallas, amid gawking spectators, as she strips off clothes until she is completely naked on the sidewalk by the grassy knoll, where she falls down as if gunshot. Here it is:
She also has been in some trouble for statements of support for Cosby, R Kelly, Farrakhan, and, well, Hitler. But that’s showbiz gossip I guess.
Pitchfork writers:
Throughout Return of the Ankh, her only proper album of this decade, she offers up conflicting desires with the unfiltered realness of a drunk dial. She pines for a long-distance love with lusty teenage angst. She laughs about fucking around on a besotten boyfriend. She cautions would-be suitors on a song called “Fall in Love (Your Funeral),” which works in lines from Biggie Smalls’ cold-blooded classic “Warning.” — Ryan Dombal
#41 Beyoncé, Lemonade (2016)
Rating: 3
This record is the music part of a visual album whose full package included a one-hour continuous music video that premiered on HBO. The video had enormous impact, creating a phenomenon beyond the “concept album.” It created a cohesive narrative commonly tied to two things: Jay-Z’s alleged unfaithfulness in their marriage, and the entire centuries-long subjugation of Black people, especially Black women.
The video was big-budget. Five different production companies (and exactly 111 production assistants) are credited. It was not an afterthought.
Full disclosure, I have not seen the Lemonade video. I thought it was intimidating and distracting to try to capture that artwork here, too.
But of course, it wasn’t just the video that was a hit. Lemonade was named the Best Album of 2016 by Rolling Stone, Billboard, Entertainment Weekly, The Guardian, The Independent, The Associated Press, The New York Times, LA Times, Stereogum, Complex, Wired, US Weekly, Paste, and USA Today.
It sparked a wave of intellectual dialogue about race, society, and history. Inferred in its creation were the largest and most important themes of humanity! The songs are linked directly to Black feminism, infidelity, spiritualism, intersectionalism, ethnomusicology. In the late 2010s you could take courses just about Lemonade at several universities.
But today, here’s my focus for you: By listening through the album several times and doing research on it, I have had an epiphany about Beyoncé’s status as a perfect Queen. I can’t question it, because it’s real, it’s already happening. But I have a new perspective on it that settles my mind. Yes. Beyonce is a queen. She has earned tremendous power and reigns over a new genre of Beyonce-ness in pop music.
For me, there are three factors that have come together to enable that:
A) She is an innate talent. That’s the foundation. She is the most outstanding *performer* that I’ve ever seen. Put aside the content and its provenance and “importance” - she can take anything and elevate it. Her voice is versatile - powerful, sexy, confident - and she can code-switch all over the map. “I’m just too much for you.” And dance. And she’s beautiful and photogenic. (Did anyone ever believe that Beyonce has ever worried about somebody else’s “good hair?”)
The “Homecoming” Coachella video is my favorite musical performance on video, period. She’s amazing.
And I take “innate” very seriously - I think she was born for this, but also channeled into it quite early. Her youth story sounds a little like a Spears-Serena amalgam. She was in a girl group, Girl’s Tyme, at the age of 8. Girl’s Tyme eventually became Destiny’s Child. Beyoncé’s dad became their manager. They were on Star Search. They had their first chart hit when Beyoncé was 16.
Here are some clips of childhood Beyoncé. I venture that in many ways, she was ALWAYS Beyoncé.
B) She committed to a persona, the glamorous perfection goddess, without apology, and it catapulted her into a new tier of superstardom. It’s not just her fashion-plate glamour and expensive image curation, it belts out of her lyrically and shows in her moves on stage. She is unstoppable because she has resolved to be unstoppable.
She has almost transcended origin myth. We don’t talk about her beginnings the way we talk about Cardi’s, or Nicki’s, or even Rihanna’s. It’s as though Beyonce has just always BEEN. She just is.
Part of us must subconsciously know that on-screen Beyonce simply can’t be a real person. But that’s no fun. So let’s just make her real anyway. Let it be self-perpetuating.
C) The third ingredient is her obvious skill - and reach — when it comes to procuring and curating the talents of others in her domain. Being a Queen means knowing what to gather from your world, and knowing how to turn it into something different. And better.
I think this may help to explain how she turns catchy but arguably unremarkable pop songs into Tenets of Black Feminism, Paeans to Emancipation, Empowerment for Cheated Wives, or whatever big picture graduate seminar emotion we need to feel. Fans are ready to feel things, and she knows how to steer and represent a four-bar hook to make those feelings happen.
Let me try to clarify ingredient C, C for Curation magic, by taking a quick stroll through a few example tracks. To be clear, I’m not pointing this stuff out as a gotcha or expression of doubt - my journey has helped me to see that this IS Beyoncé.
My favorite track is “Hold Up.” I love the retro hook, the melody, and it’s clever. A few fun facts:
That retro hook? It’s straight up lifted from the Andy Williams song “Can’t Get Used to Losing You” Listen! It’s disorienting.
Five years before Lemonade, Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend was in the studio with Diplo, who had brought the Williams hook to mess with. Koenig wrote “there's no other God above you, what a wicked way to treat the man who loves you" over the beats. He was writing it as a Vampire Weekend song originally.
Koenig also loved Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs and their lead singer Karen O. Her first single was “Maps.” He took her line “Wait. They don’t love you like I love you,” changed “wait” to “hold up” and added it to the refrain
But the verses - they’re totally Beyoncé right? I mean:
How did it come down to this? Scrolling through your call list
I don't wanna lose my pride, but imma fuck me up a bitch…What's worse, lookin' jealous or crazy? Jealous or crazy?
Or like being walked all over lately, walked all over lately
I'd rather be crazy
That’s so Beyonce! Channeling her anger at Jay-Z. Well, not exactly. Believe it or not, the person who wrote that verse and refrain was…Father John Misty!
Jack White is featured on the track “Don’t Hurt Yourself.” It has a wicked drum hook right off the bat - who was it they wrangled into laying that foundational drum track in one of the eleven(!) studios where Lemonade was recorded?
Well, it was the Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham, who died before Beyoncé was born. Because it’s a direct sample from “When the Levee Breaks” from Led Zeppelin IV. See, that Zeppelin song was originally recorded in the 1920’s by Black blues singer Memphis Minnie, and was about the Mississippi flood that affected African-American families. So really it’s a re-appropriation of the ethnic - wait…. Wait. See now I’m doing it too, aren’t I?
The song “Freedom” features Kendrick Lamar. It has an incredible psychedelic fuzz-guitar and marching snare setup that evokes a ‘60s vibe and the 50-year Black Panther thing she channeled into her Super Bowl performance of “Formation.”
That psychedelic fuzz-guitar thing? It’s a direct sample of an obscure 1969 track from a band called Kaleidoscope, a quartet of guys from Puerto Rico. The album originally only had 200 copies pressed. Here’s the link to the song “Let Me Try.” The sampled part starts at 0:40 seconds. Check it!
But “Formation!” Recognized as a Black Power anthem. Clearly that’s Beyonce’s message: “Ok ladies, now let’s get in formation.”
Well yes, it is. It definitely is! BUT it was Mike Will Made It, the producer for Rae Sremmurd, who had written the weird boingy synth hook and developed it with the duo.
And it was Swae Lee, of Rae Sremmurd, who wrote the “ok ladies…” line over Mike Will’s hook. Then they gave it to Beyoncé. Enthusiastically.
None of this means that her album isn’t original. That’s my point. Her talent, and of course the vocal performance, turned these fragments into legendary hits. None of the contributors have any complaints. They simply sound honored. Because the person performing my stuff - that’s the Queen.
Somebody has an incredible ear for what part goes where. How the song comes together, and what she can do with her voice to make it great. It’s her.
I’ve just fine-tuned my perspective on what Beyoncé does. She has access to, well, basically everything and everybody now. She has a skeleton key for every door.
I think that’s it - Talent, Curation, and Production. Subtle, simple lyrical flourishes that carry more weight, mean something different, when she sings them with that voice. And the ability to reach down into the river of past music and lift out gems that just need polishing.
And think about this. My “Hold Up” story. Andy Williams, Diplo, Ezra Koenig, Karen O, Father John Misty. All white people. But the product is Black power. Obviously. There’s no doubt when you listen to it. Beyoncé knows how to remind us that most of that rock/country/folk stuff originated with Black music anyway.
Can you be too wealthy to be the voice of Black empowerment? Too inaccessible? Too blonde? WHO CARES? She is, so she is.
Long live the Queen.
Pitchfork writers:
Lemonade feels like an exercise in dissonance, the act of holding two warring ideas in your head and in your heart: You can love someone but also hate them, adore your father and also resent him, want to cry and twerk at the same time. One woman can feel all of this—and more—at once, Lemonade suggests, because that’s how confusing life and grief and history is. It exalts the mundane as profoundly spiritual: being black, being a woman, feeling confused, feeling grief, trying to forgive, feeling sexual. In all those, together, is the healing. – Hunter Harris
#40 Charli XCX, Pop 2 (2017)
Rating: 1
Our last couple dozen records on the list have been heavy on female pop, and with that exposure it’s easier to place this one in the canon. Granted, it’s probably not fair for a female dance pop star to directly follow Lemonade on this countdown. I know, it’s not the same thing, but listening to Lemonade about a dozen times and then turning to this one…it’s a shift.
Charli long ago cemented a reputation as a pop songwriter. The closest artist we’ve heard recently was SOPHIE, with whom Charli has collaborated frequently - in fact, SOPHIE produced the track “Out of My Head” Though SOPHIE was more adventurous in my opinion.
You probably know her songwriting. It can be incredibly catchy. She broke out with Icona Pop’s “I Love It,” a mostly-Swedish pop anthem that you may know better as “I Don’t Care!”, and needs an ear worm trigger warning, beware! She also wrote Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy,” likely that artist’s sort-of-OK-est (and most controversially Black-speak) song.
Charli then broke out with her first solo hit, “Boom Clap” in 2014. It’s okay. Like much of Charli’s work it tends to have a Kidz Bop vibe.
This record? It was recorded in a couple of months. A quick follow up to a prior mixtape Number 1 Angel. It has a long list of features with global scope, from Chicago’s Cupcakke to an Estonian rapper to a Brazilian drag queen singer to Sweden’s Tove Lo.
Charli is auto-tuned almost out of existence at times - she admitted she’s now skittish about singing without that effect. See “Tears,” which includes background vocals in the chorus that I think are intentionally going for a fingernails-on-blackboard-in-anguish mood. (see 1:40)
It’s hard to latch a story to this. It’s dance pop. It’s very electronic. It has choruses like:
I got it, I got it, I got it, I got it, I got it, I got it
I got it, I got it, I got it, I got it, I got it, I got it
I got it, I got it, I got it, I got it, I got it, I got it
I got it, I got it, I got it, (Got it) yeah (Got it)
I got it, I got it, I got it, I got it, I got it, I got it
I got it, I got it, I got it, I got it, I got it, I got it
I got it, I got it, I got it, I got it, I got it, I got it
I got it, I got it, I got it, (Got it) yeah (Got it)
She takes a bit of a femmebot persona - she’s always had a very pouty delivery. As on, say, maybe the track “Femmebot.”
Here’s a set from Pitchfork Festival in 2019. I have no particular reference point to forward to, it’s all kind of similar but gives you an idea of her poppy, athletic, avatar presence. (And also 100% prerecorded backing tracks including guide vocals.)
All this is FINE, I’m just saying, the album comes across as a DJ set, a throwaway. Or at least, I’m having trouble catching the narrative on why it’s so high on this album list. Was this all that influential?
Pitchfork writers:
After cowriting and appearing on Iggy Azalea’s hit “Fancy,” Charli XCX could have easily shipped out to Los Angeles to record Max Martin cast-offs forever. But instead, Charli began to construct her own little weird pop utopia from the ground up, turning to the squelchy, hyper-synthetic sounds of producers like A.G. Cook and SOPHIE. The Pop 2 mixtape, Charli’s best full-length to date, is the brilliant culmination of all that effort: a nonstop avant-garde party built for fembots and fog machines - Hazel Cills