Speaking of mobile devices: Erykah Badu’s new ‘But You Caint Use My Phone’ out
NEW YORK – Erykah Badu’s new mixtape, “But You Caint Use My Phone,” released today on iTunes/Apple (available otherwise Dec. 4), is all about cell phones in this time and place. Titled after a line from her 1997 single “Tyrone,” the material boasts an array of guests, including Drake and Andre 3000. Badu, 44, also is host for the 2015 Soul Train Music Awards, which air Sunday at BET and Centric.
She’s been ... busy.
“I’ve had this on for about two months,” Badu says of the outfit she’s wearing for this interview, backstage at “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon” – shiny black overalls, sky-high top hat and a chambray button-up with a wooden bowtie that reads “HELLO”). Here, she talks about the hosting gig (earlier this month in Las Vegas), new music and platinum-selling rapper Drake, whose “Hotline Bling” single she remixed and released in October.
Q: You hosted the Soul Train Music Awards in 1998. How was your experience this year?
A: It was really fun. And this time around they made me an associate producer, so I had an opportunity to write my material, which I think is really cool – to, you know, see my things crystalize – my words and my sense of humor, which is pretty unique and self-serving.
Q: What made you say yes to the job?
A: I thought that, ‘Hey, this is a great opportunity to expose myself to this naked place. this place that I had not been welcomed before.’ I’m known for the singing, and stuff like that. No one knows that I direct all my videos and write all of the treatments. No one knows that I do all of my own artwork. No one knows that, you know, this is me. I pick my clothes out. No one knows any of those things. So I think that it’s a good time to start exposing my art to the air.
Q: What’s up with the mixtape?
A: It’s really, really, really, really awesome. I first did a remake of Drake’s ‘Hotline Bling’ because I thought it was an awesome song. I actually did it for Big Mike’s birthday. Big Mike’s my road manager, tour manager. That’s his favorite song. as well as a lot of other people’s, too. And it came out good. And I just stayed in that studio, in the bedroom, and I just kept writing songs, making songs, writing songs. And about 10 days later, I had this mixtape.
Q: Everyone seems to love Drake – you included. Why do you think that is?
A: He’s a brilliant genius. He’s a genius. He’s a talented actor. He’s a brilliant comedian – comedic timing is perfection. He’s a talented songwriter. He’s a talented singer. He’s an exquisite, extraordinary producer. He’s a great person. …He invited me to Canada to listen to (2011 album) ‘Take Care,’ and you know, I went there and listened to the album. You know, (I’m) just really proud to see his evolution. He’s one of the few artists I can say is really evolving each time he appears. And that’s inspiring to me. And that’s my challenge.
Q: You do a lot of things – make music, write comedy, help deliver babies as a doula. How do you stay so ‘unstuck’?
A: I don’t know. I just, I guess I don’t judge. You know, that helps you not be stuck. You know, people say hip-hop is dead, and they say soul music is dead and those kind of things, but it won’t die if you allow it to evolve. If you allow its essence to grow inside of the young people – because they carry it. As they grow, I grow with them.
This story was originally published November 27, 2015 at 4:36 PM with the headline "Speaking of mobile devices: Erykah Badu’s new ‘But You Caint Use My Phone’ out."