Erykah Badu answers questions on stage during the Red Bull Music Academy, a series of lectures and performances in New York City. Tony Blasko/Red Bull Content Pool hide caption

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The Record

A Night Of Worship In The Church Of Badu

May 3, 2013 • Erykah Badu is far from your average pop star. Answering questions on stage in New York recently, she was more like a guru: She drew the audience close, received love and handled awkwardness with ease.

NPR Music's 50 Favorite Albums Of 2010

50 Favorites: A-B

December 1, 2010 • The list of our 50 favorite albums of the year includes Aloe Blacc, Arcade Fire and more artists from A to B.

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Music Articles

From Elvis To Lady Gaga: Playing With Shock Value In Music

May 28, 2010 • For decades, musicians have used shock value to provoke their audiences. Elvis swung his hips, Madonna sang about her nonexistent virginity and Marilyn Manson named himself after a convicted killer. Now, there's a new crop of rabble-rousers on the scene. Lady Gaga, M.I.A. and Erykah Badu are among the artists continuing the tradition of shock value in music today.

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Music Reviews

'New Amerykah Part 2': Badu Comes Full Circle

April 8, 2010 • The entire album is dressed with a classic romanticism; excepting a few studio-room outtakes/interludes, New Amerykah Part 2 is all love songs — or, better put, falling-in-and-out-of-and-back-into-love songs, forming a complex of conflicted emotions over love's charms and harms.

Monday Morning Sports

Assisted Listen: Erykah Badu's 'New Amerykah'

April 14, 2008 • With the release of New Amerykah: Part One (4th World War), Erykah Badu has an album New Yorker music critic Sasha Frere-Jones says is worth another listen.

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Janet Jackson's Big on 'Discipline'

February 26, 2008 • With her new CD Discipline, Janet Jackson leads a roster of new releases from veteran stars. Carl Wilson of the Globe and Mail looks at Jackson's album, plus new records from Dolly Parton and Erykah Badu.

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Music Articles

'Mama's Gun' from Erykah Badu

January 25, 2001 • Music critic Tom Moon reviews the soulful sounds of Erykah Badu on a CD called Mama's Gun. Her music is a mix of 70's soul and modern hip hop. Moon says that on this record, through improvisation, Badu has found a way to make hip-hop regain its spontaneity.

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