On three separate occasions, I have waited for Erykah Badu. The first was at Bonnaroo 2009, the second was at the Palladium Ballroom in Dallas last winter. Yesterday at the SmokeOut Festival she was scheduled to perform from 9:15pm until 10:15pm on the Indonesian Stage, but the actual stage wasn’t completely sound checked and ready until  9:45. When she still hadn’t showed at 10:05pm, I was almost ready to leave so that I wouldn’t miss Paul Oakenfold or Incubus. I wondered if she had been purposely placed in that stage’s last time slot because of her chronic lateness, as rest of the festival seemingly intolerant of any shows running over their allotted time. The band had been patiently repeating her entrance music for the last 20 minutes or so when she walked onstage sporting a blonde wig and long plaid coat. The crowd breathed a collective chorus of ‘Finally.’ But when she opened her mouth for the opening ‘The Healer/Hip Hop’ (see video below), all of the time spent waiting was forgotten and forgiven.

 

 

In addition to being one of the few female performers at the festival, she also employed an unusual band of five DJs, a live drummer, and the incredible RC Williams on keys.  All members of her band wore matching tee shirts with their name ‘The Cannabinoids’ emblazoned on the front. She removed her jacket to reveal a mod 60’s flower print jumper dress, accented only by large winged gold cuffs on each wrist. Throughout the show, she would merely flick one of her hands and the entire band would drop out immediately. Her hold over her band and the audience was impressive, and though she has an extensive catalog of songs I don’t think I’ve ever heard or watched her perform the same one twice. Erykah has no problem remixing her own music, combining new textures and rhythms of existing songs with her powerful voice. The delay effects used on her vocals were effective because they were used only occasionally, adding a psychedlic tint to her hard-hitting hip hop and R&B tracks. I especially enjoyed her ’50′s doo wop version of  ‘…&On’, a song that broke down as her voice shrieked out the exit line “That’s all I have, ain’t got no more” Erykah Badu‘s latest album is New Amerykah Pt.2: Return of the Ankh and it’s absolutely killer. It is now available on iTunes. and I would recommend it to anyone interested in what the Queen Bee of Hip Hop has to say.  For more information about her current tour, please visit her website.