Erykah Badu has long been one of music’s most unpredictable entertainers — you just never know when she’ll pop up with some new music, honey-dripped in her jazzy throwback soul and down home, Southern wisdom. That’s exactly what she did today in a new live mix of funk, soul, and hip-hop on NTS.
Titled “The Sound Of Green,” the mix features new and classic sounds from the likes of both Thundercat and the late jazz trumpeter Roy Hargrove, who worked on music with Badu and the Soulquarians collective which included the Roots and other neo-soul artists of the late-90s/early-2000s. But sandwiched right in between Bone Thugs-N-Harmony and Lil Jon — Erykah Badu is an eclectic soul — she drops in a short, untitled new song she created with the Cannabinoids, a Dallax band that she collaborates and tours with.
While she doesn’t expressly title it during her introduction, the song may as well be called “Money Can’t Buy Me Love,” as its the primary, old-school truism that makes up half of the song’s main refrain. And while the above observation certainly is true, its follow-up line is equally undeniable: “… but it can keep me in some fresh sh*t.” Amen.
Erykah hasn’t released a new album since You Cain’t Use My Phone in 2015, preferring to devote her time to touring and her work as a licensed doula, but it’s always nice to hear new music from the woman who basically invented — and later rejected — the term neo-soul.
You can also watch her spit an impressive rhyme while DJing during the BET Hip-Hop Awards Cypher here.
