• ' Released: December 1996 • ' Released: May 1997 • ' Released: September 1997 Baduizm is the debut album by American singer and songwriter, released on February 11, 1997. After leaving university in order to concentrate on music full-time, Badu then began touring with her cousin, Robert 'Free' Bradford, and recorded a 19-song demo, Country Cousins, which attracted the attention of. He set Badu up to record a duet with, 'Your Precious Love,' and eventually signed her to a record deal with. Recording sessions for the album took place from January to October 1996 at in,,. Baduizm was met with positive reviews from music critics who praised the album's musical style and Badu's artistic vision; other critics noted similarities between Badu.

Baduizm was a commercial success debuting at number two on the US charts and number one on the Billboard. The album was certified three times platinum by, Gold by and Gold by the.

Baduizm was promoted with the release of four singles: 'On & On', 'Next Lifetime', 'Otherside of the Game', and 'Apple Tree'. The album received many accolades including winning awards for 'On & On' and a at the. Along with fellow contemporaries such as 's (1995) and 's (1996), Baduizm 's success helped establish Badu as one of the leading artists in the neo soul genre and is one of the albums credited with contributing to the genre's commercial visibility at the time. Contents • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Background [ ] At the age of 14, Erykah was free-styling for a local radio station alongside such talents as. In her youth, she had decided to change the spelling of her first name from Erica to Erykah, as she believed her original name was a 'slave name.' The term 'kah' signifies one's inner self.

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She adopted the surname of Badu because it was her favorite jazz sound; also, among the people in, it is the term for the 10th-born child. Upon graduating from, Badu went on to study theater at, a. To concentrate on music full-time, she left the university in 1993 before graduating, and took on several minimum-wage jobs to support herself. She taught drama and dance to children at the South Dallas Cultural Center.

Working and touring with her cousin, Robert 'Free' Bradford, she recorded a 19-song demo, Country Cousins, which attracted the attention of. He set Badu up to record a duet with, 'Your Precious Love,' and eventually signed her to a record deal with. Recording and production [ ]. Badu collaborated with (pictured) during the production of the album. Recording sessions for the album took place during January to October 1996 at Battery Studios in, Sigma Sounds & Ivory Studios in, and Dallas Sound Lab in. Badu revealed on that her debut album, was partly influenced by 's, saying in a tweet, “Brandy's first album was one of my inspirations when writing Baduizm.

I looove that album [.] songs i liked were 'I Wanna Be Down' and 'Always on My Mind'. Badu stated the album was inspired by her heritage, stating that during the recording process she was embracing her culture and African heritage, particularly head wraps and African drums.

After the album was recorded and ready to be released, Badu persuaded the label to let her go back to in order to record ' and 'Sometimes', which were originally demos from a meeting with the band, whom she had met following her record deal. During the short stint in Philadelphia, Badu and The Roots came up with various songs, while 'Sometimes' was originally written for Black Thought to rap on. The only songs recorded during the sessions produced in Philadelphia to appear on this album are 'Otherside of the Game' and 'Sometimes,' while the other songs from the sessions were scrapped. Erykah Badu provided lead and background vocals, along with keyboards, drum machine and other music programming on the album with the help of Madukwu and N'Dambi, who also provided additional vocals. & Tone The Backbone provided various instruments and helped with the album's music programming alongside Ike Lee III, who provided keyboards and programming and John Meredith, who handled the album's drum machine programming.