THROWBACK: Erykah Badu -- Mama's Gun: Review

Erykah Badu -- Mama’s Gun

[Motown/Puppy Love]

Long has humanity known and experimented with practices to heal the body--chemicals, healthy foods, physical activity, and the like--but less seldom discussed (especially in Western culture) are the various means to heal the soul. The soul can be even more complex to understand and heal than the body but can be just as, if not more important to nurture. Billions of humans in history have gone their lives pondering the healing techniques to their own souls.

Artists have long meditated on this question, exploring the healing of the soul in art. However, while each profession of art tries their hand at investigating the soul, no group has gone as far as musicians. In modern society, it’s common knowledge to know that if you’re sad as hell, go listen to some music and it’ll make you feel better. Whether or not indulging in sorrow is good in the long run, humans have known music as a net positive in healing your mood.

Robert Johnson knew it when he invented blues music in 1927. Billie Holiday knew it when she sang “Strange Fruit” to the downtrodden Black folks of America. McCartney knew it when he first performed “Yesterday” on live TV to sad British people. And the legacy continued from Gaye and Wonder to Cobain and Cornell.

The turn of the millennium brought its fair share of anxieties to the people of Earth. In 2000, another presidential race was happening, the scare of Y2K was real and alive, and the American people could barely prepare for what was to come in 2001. Needless to say, it set the stage for a dire moment of weakness in the country.

Then, in November 2000, Erykah Badu’s Mama’s Gun released, standing as an achievement in the story of ‘healing music’. It was an ambitious double album that saw Badu going in a newer direction with her sound while maintaining those fundamentals of neo-soul that made her music so medicinal.

Badu was admittedly at a rough point in her life at the creation of Mama’s Gun. She had recently ended a relationship with Andre 3000 of OutKast fame whose son she gave birth to. So while the state of emotional comfort during her first studio record Baduizm allowed her to hide behind metaphors and layered lyricism, the troubles she was going through were too much to hide.

Consequently, this volatile time in her life reflects in the album which is much more direct in its emotional content. As comforting and groovy as Badu is here, she gets deeper than ever before, which pushed her to take more risks with the music.

The album starts with “Penitentiary Philosophy”, a celebratory confrontation with the toxic perceptions that cage our mind. Badu said this about the track: “We lock ourselves into our own philosophies, our own religions, our own walks of life, and if we fail, we condemn ourselves and then we get sick.” By putting this at the front of the record Badu challenges us as viewers to shake the chains of perception that rest upon our minds and to see clearly. All the while, the instrumentation mirrors the explosive, holy nature of some classic Parliament-Funkadelic, music concerned with the same thing.

What follows is the free-flowing train of thought spewing from Badu’s mind as she jumps from anxiety (“Didn’t Cha Know”) to nostalgia (“My Life”) to self-love (“Cleva”). While Badu bears her free mind to us, we are treated to the beautiful instrumentals provided by various Soulquarians and their collaborations (J Dilla, Questlove, Roy Ayers, James Poyser to name a few).

Intentions turn outward with “Booty” and “Kiss Me on My Neck” where Badu examines sexuality and reaches a moment of pride on the record. On “A.D. 2000”, Badu meditates on her legacy, fearing to be forgotten. “Bag Lady” on the last leg of the record is an open letter from Badu to herself on emotional baggage and moving on from a relationship.

The inclusive nature of the neo-soul movement is here in spades where influences of skittering drum machines, groovy R&B rimshots, and funky melodies combine to make some of best healing music ever. Whether or not the subject matter is anything to get hot ‘n’ heavy about, the beats are sexy as f**k. That, combined with the naturally harmonic nature of Badu’s unique singing style, and the music still holds up, even if the listeners are preoccupied…

Mama’s Gun isn’t just fantastic cuddle music but it is a turning point in the music’s style into healing music as well. And while Badu had no one to truly cuddle with during the making of the record, deep in the pieces of her emotions, you hear someone learning how to nurture themself. And honestly, isn’t that the most important person you should be cuddling??

Listen To: “Didn’t Cha Know”, “Bag Lady”, “Green Eyes”

RIYL: Mary J. Blige, SZA, Solange