The day after she finished her new album at Electric Lady Studios, the West Village recording shrine that Jimi Hendrix built, multiplatinum R&B singer Erykah Badu was back in her surprisingly modest apartment in Brooklyn, puttering.
In the tiny kitchen she poured organic pomegranate juice into a jelly jar, then stretched out on a mattress on the floor as “New AmErykah, Part One (4th World War),” released in late February, played on her laptop. After weeks in the studio, she was so happy to be home that she refused to leave, rescheduling appointments and interviews around her domestic whim.
“This is my museum,” Badu, 37, said of the one-bedroom apartment where she has lived on and off since coming to New York, demo tape in hand, 11 years ago from her native Dallas, where she was Erica Wright.
“Since I’ve been here, I’ve had two children, a few boyfriends, a lot of records,” she continued in her slight, girly drawl. “Everyone that comes over here draws on the wall or leaves something. You’re looking at my mind when you’re looking at these things.”
Decorating the hallway, for instance, is a 3-foot-tall ankh; artwork by her 10-year-old son, Seven, underneath a magazine photo of his father, rapper Andre Benjamin of OutKast; yellow caution tape; dried flowers; protest-style placards; and a metal trash can lid, hung on the wall like an art piece. (“I thought it was cute,” she said.)
After a public bout of writer’s block that led to her “Frustrated Artist” tour in 2003 and 2004, Badu is eager to promote what she calls her magnum opus. “New AmErykah” is part of a creative torrent that includes a sequel record, due this summer, and an unrelated retro-minded album, “Lowdown Loretta Brown,” scheduled for the fall. Badu also plans to start a lifestyle magazine, The Freaq, this summer; the first issue will come with a copy of “New AmErykah: Part Two.” Both records also will be available on a USB stick for fans to plug into their computers; for added value Badu wants to record a USB commentary track to explain her references and inspiration. A tour that started this month comes to Chicago on Friday and Saturday.
“I swear to God, this must be my artistic peak,” Badu said in an interview at Electric Lady, where she walked around barefoot. As mystical as Badu’s interests are — ancient Egypt, which she calls Kemet, astrology and the power of positive thinking, a la “The Secret” — she is equally grounded in the realities of the contemporary music business.
“I know Erykah Badu is a brand,” she said. “And I try to make sure that I’m on point with that — every part of me. I’m healthy. I make sure I’m at the meeting. I try to be on time.”