New Amerykah Part One: 4th World War

Rolling Stone (p.59) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "Badu kicks off the first disc by indulging her arty side: 4TH WORLD WAR is mostly dark, minor-key melodies, eerie chants and atmospheric electro beats..." Rolling Stone (p.91) - Ranked #19 in Rolling Stone's 50 Best Albums Of 2008 -- "AMERYKAH is a hip-hop update of Funkadelic's brain-melting sonic stews." Spin (p.51) - Ranked #12 in Spin's "40 Best Albums Of 2008" -- "Laptop R&B that uses hip-hop as its muse....Badu croons her own future in your ear." Entertainment Weekly (p.58) - "She is both earth mama and mystic, a Billie Holiday jazz-rasp queen with a tangy Southern drawl..." -- Grade: A- Uncut (p.87) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[S]he's far bolder, singing in a strange, little girl's voice over a solitary Chet Baker-style trumpet or chanting mantra-like over a bubbling African rhythm." The Wire (p.70) - "['Honey'] drips with the kind of sultry retro-funk that proves NEW AMERYKAH to have been well worth any amount of waiting." Vibe (p.75) - "[T]he album is challenging, fabulously out there....It's drenched in a '70s acid-rock aura/ afro-sheen vibe -- a spacious, heady brew of trippy guitars, keyboards, and steady beats." Q (Magazine) (p.141) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "NEW AMERYKAH blends classic soul with Sly Stone-freak funk and zonked-out hip hop." Mojo (Publisher) (p.106) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[H]er boldest and best yet, brilliantly eccentric but repaying every indulgence." Mojo (Publisher) (p.72) - Ranked #16 in Mojo's "The 50 Best Albums Of 2008" -- "[S]egueing through haunted hip hop, luscious soul and futurist funk..."

Downplayed and practically disregarded as it was, 2003's Worldwide Underground was an excellent and brave follow-up to 2000's Mama's Gun. Erykah Badu concedes she had nothing to say at the time -- the loose 50-minute "EP" was more about sounds than statements -- but she evidently holds herself to a high standard. Perhaps that streak was a factor in her protracted silence from its release to New Amerykah, Pt. 1: 4th World War; she even thought she might be through with making music. Her creative energy returned at some point, and then some, with this set apparently just the first in a series of releases. Varied and layered, New Amerykah, Pt. 1 has Badu collaborating principally with the members of Sa-Ra (who are present in almost half of the tracks), Madlib, 9th Wonder, and Baduizm/Mama's Gun vets Karriem Riggins, James Poyser, and Ahmir Thompson. If you're familiar with what these people have made in the past, you'll know to expect plenty of fearless weirdness and a couple relaxed soul-jazz backdrops that do not fail to stimulate. The album is easily the most hip-hop and most out-there release from Badu thus far, with beats bumping, knocking, and booming in roughly equal measure, sometimes switching tacks or vanishing midstream, dropping down dark corridors, gradually levitating into direct sunlight. Lyrically, there's much to digest: in the ghostly-mystical "The Healer," Badu proclaims hip-hop to be bigger than religion and government; both "That Hump" and "The Cell" are vivid depictions of drug dependency; "Soldier" gives a shout to the Nation of Islam, addresses Katrina and black-on-black crime, and sends out a warning ("Now to folks that think they livin' sweet/They gone fuck around and push 'delete'"); "Twinkle" evokes a lot of thought with few words, alluding to the various failures of the U.S. health, education, and prison systems, and the negative and cyclical effects they've had on Badu's people. Though this is another album where you can only wonder how different it would be with some input from the late J Dilla, the beloved producer gets an incredibly touching tribute with the eight-minute "Telephone," written the day after the ceremony of his death. Indeed, no listed song is light in sentiment, which must partially explain why the beaming single "Honey" is included as an unlisted track -- it doesn't fit into the album's fabric, what with its drifting, deeply sweetened, synth-squish-and-string-drift groove. Immediately moving and yet rather bewildering, New Amerykah, Pt. 1 is an album that sounds special from the first play, yet it will probably take years before it is known just how special it is. ~ Andy Kellman

寡作ながらも必ずシーンの動きに影響を与える充実作を生んできた彼女が、デビュー10周年を経て待望の新作をようやく完成させた。のっけから70'sレア・グルーヴ名曲であるランプ“The American Promise”の、オリジナルと同じロイ・エアーズを起用したリメイク!　ただ、それ以降は先行曲“Honey”を手掛けた絶好調の9thワンダーをはじめ、マッドリブやサー・ラー・クリエイティヴ・パートナーズ、盟友のクェストラヴといったヒップホップ勢が強力にサポート。そんななか、オープニングの勢いそのままに泥臭いファンクをディープに追求しながら、独自のクロスオーヴァー感覚を交錯させて、見事にフューチャリスティックなサウンドへと昇華するバドゥイズムはやはり唯一無二だ。心して聴くべし!
bounce (C)卯之田 吉晴