For Badu, 'Mama's Gun' still loaded with lessons

It's been 25 years since her landmark sophomore album was released, but the R&B singer continues to unpack its messages.

- BY KAILYN BROWN

AARON J. THORNTON Getty Images for Essence

ERYKAH BADU at the Essence Festival in July. The singer is currently touring to mark the 25th anniversary of "Mama's Gun."

WHEN ERYKAH BADU unveiled her highly anticipated sophomore album, “Mama’s Gun,” to the world on Nov. 18, 2000, she was in a period of transition.

The generational talent was three years removed from “Baduizm,” her paradigm-shifting first album, which debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and won two Grammys. She was also learning how to balance being a mother for the first time and her newfound, flourishing career. Meanwhile, she'd recently gotten out of a high-profile relationship with her son’s father, André “3000” Benjamin.

“I don’t remember what was going through my head,” Badu says when I ask her about her mindset going into “Mama’s Gun” and whether she felt pressure. “I just knew it was the beginning of my career and I was happy to be in that sport.”

Badu treated “Mama’s Gun” like a “metaphorical diary” — as she does with all of her music—allowing herself to release everything that she was experiencing in real time. The result was a stylistically adventurous, lyrically bold and vulnerable 14-track offering that further solidified her as a leading voice in R&B and hip-hop. Anchored by the singles “Bag Lady” (a poignant warning to let go of your emotional baggage) and the self-discovering “Didn't Cha Know” (co-produced by J Dilla), Badu showed critics and fans alike that she would never allow herself to be trapped in a creative boxan ethos that she's carried throughout her 30-year career.