Royalty Media Group Blog

Annie don’t got no panties
Annie don’t got no panties
She might forget her drawers but she won’t forget the hot sauce
Annie don’t got no panties . . .

…………The first lyrical rhetoric of Erykah Badu during her opening set at the Brooklyn Sugar Water Festival early August of 2006. Her entrances are always grand, and the experience is everlasting. The playful lyrical style of this homegrown Texas polyartist has always been memorable even if sense is the last thing to be made. Erykah Badu just released her fifth album, New Amerykah Pt. 1: 4th World War - Savior’s Day in February 2008, in her 11-year career. Her debut single of this 12 track album is Honey. (The music video has a cut to her recreating the stage scene of her ex-lover Andre 3000’s video Hey Yall with her chanting the lyrics ‘Annie don’t got no panties’)

This album is more direct and less playful than her previous work even just by viewing the album art such as the cover which is a dark but colorful photo sketch of her face and afro which is highlighted red around the edges on a black backdrop with her two fist protruding showing her knuckles covered with a bar ring that says New Amerykah. (Taking me back personally to Do the Right Thing’s Radio Raheem love/hate knuckle rings that represented the struggle in his community) Her afro is filled with objects/ things (weapons, corpses, etc) that represent the so called source of the decay within black/urban communities in America. Her first single of the album Honey is a depiction of the old school hip hop being saturated by greed and politics represented by her showing up on every album cover revealed making a mockery of what has happened to the music industry as a whole with a strong point of reference and backdrop being parallel to what is going on within black America. It is a fact that in her previous work/ albums she has always had a message for the enlightenment (conscious hip-hop) of people of color in such songs as Yayo and On & On but this new project is hard hitting and to the point. The track listings go from Healer to Me to My People with lyrics like:

Rastafari fyah dance, sex, music, hip-hop
It’s bigger than religion hip-hop . . .
We ain’t dead said the children don’t believe it . . .

to

My people hold on
Love is on the way
Don’t let it go now

New Amerykah is definitely more personal with an immediate message of unity within black America with her telling her personal story on the third track, Me and also telling the plight of the current struggle in songs such as Soldier and Twinkle then stating what could be the end result if things were to continue as is or if there is a spread of knowledge, growth leading to unity; their will be a New Amerykah! Highly recommended!

Kita P