Is Baduizm Timeless?
There’s no formula to making a timeless record. While artists, publications, and fans have their own criteria for what qualifies as timeless, music is unpredictable in its potential impact.
Using the definition of timeless, the only definite criteria is that the album must transcend the context in which it was created and keep its cultural, emotional, or political value in tact.
And said value must exist outside of nostalgia alone. There is plenty of awful music that fondly reminds us of the person we were when we loved it, but that doesn’t really make it timeless. Very simply, timeless albums are the ones that you want to hit play on years later. The ones that soothe your broken heart and lull your racing mind. The ones you share with those you love and the ones that have helped you grow into yourself.
Baduizm is touted as one of the albums that created the foundation for contemporary Neo-Soul.
This album is the philosophy of Erykah Badu and the guidebook for those who believe in her message. Exploring what it means to be Black, to be a Black woman, and to be a human navigating this thing called life, Baduizm is an album that is timeless in its listenability and its meaningfulness to young Black women decades after its release.
Erykah Badu debuted with an album that lives on and continues to grow with her. The natural, fluid energy of the album’s tracks allows for the music to be organic and adaptable in live performances. Badu and her band follow the loose framework of each song that gives the music room to shrink and swell freely as it is performed, making each rendition a little different from the last. She is able to evoke that same feeling as when we pressed play for the first time or pull the song into an entirely new frame of mind.
I’m cheating a bit here, but the best example of this is “Green Eyes” from her second album Mama’s Gun. In some performances I can still hear the longing pain, and in others, her tone is strong and unfeeling. With ideas that she introduced in Baduizm, Erykah Badu can introduce herself, reinvent familiar lyrical and melodic motives, transpose lyrics, or create a new vibe without the song feeling like it should be confined to its studio recording.
No matter how the audience changes, Baduizm can still impact its listener on a deeper, more meaningful level.
I didn’t hear Baduizm until I was about 18, nearly two decades after it was released, but I think it came into my life at just the right time. I was a freshman in college (I lived in a cramped dorm and everything), and the euphoria I felt with being totally independent fizzled out when I realized I had no clue what I was doing.
I was a first-gen college student in a city 600 miles away from my mom, and I was lost. My mom always told me that I reminded her of Erykah Badu, and I think I finally listened to Baduizm because I missed her and wanted to find ways to feel connected to her while I was away. As I grew to love this album, I better understood all of the lesson my mom tried to teach me before I was ready to receive them. “Next Lifetime” and “4 Leaf Clover” clarified my mom’s emphasis on establishing emotional and financial independence for myself. “Appletree” makes me appreciate all the times she encouraged me to wear the bright colors I loved and always be proud of doing my own thing. “On & On” reminds me to not dwell on the days she’s disappointed me because life goes on and we’re still here to enjoy it together. This album, only a couple months older than I am, helped me find and sustain this special friendship with and reverence for my mom, A.K.A. the homie Redd. And I believe, even if I had found Baduizm five years later, the magic would still be there.
Baduizm is a timeless album.
Maybe because hearing a new live rendition of “On & On” excites me every time. Or because I’m too young to get the nostalgia factor, and I still enjoy it. Because we were born in the same year and it still holds cultural and personal relevance. Because it reminds me of how much I love my mom. Or just because I still want to press play, every day.
