JackieBlue said:

The 42 Divine Principles of the Goddess Maat
1. I have not committed sin.

2. I have not committed robbery with violence.

3. I have not stolen.

4. I have not slain men or women

5. I have not stolen food.

6. I have not swindled offerings.

7. I have not stolen from God/Goddess.

8. I have not told lies.

9. I have not carried away food.

10. I have not cursed.

11. I have not closed my ears to truth

12. I have not committed adultery.

13. I have not made anyone cry.

14. I have not felt sorrow without reason

15. I have not assaulted anyone

16. I am not deceitful.

17. I have not stolen anyone’s land

18. I have not been an eavesdropper

19. I have not falsely accused anyone.

20. I have not been angry without reason.

21. I have not seduced anyone’s wife.

22. I have not polluted myself.

23. I have not terrorized anyone.

24. I have not disobeyed the Law.

25. I have not been exclusively angry.

26. I have not cursed God/Goddess.

27. I have not behaved with violence.

28. I have not caused disruption of peace.

29. I have not acted hastily or without thought.

30. I have not overstepped my boundaries of concern.

31. I have not exaggerated my words when speaking.

32. I have not worked evil.

33. I have not used evil thoughts, words or deeds.

34. I have not polluted the water

35. I have not spoken angrily or arrogantly.

36. I have not cursed anyone in thought, word or deeds.

37. I have not placed myself on a Pedestal.

38. I have not stolen what belongs to God/Goddess.

39. I have not stolen from or disrespected the deceased.

40. I have not taken food from a child.

41. I have not acted with insolence.

42. I have not destroyed property belonging to God/Goddess.

Rhondab said:

!!!!!

I thought maybe the 42 laws were hidden in the album somewhere because she says "OK, whenever he say a key word, everyone just shout on the cue" and so I was trying to identify those shouts and cues EXCELLENT!. I'm learning some new stuff today

NDRU said:

OK, I can't believe how many people are struggling with this album musically. There are Mama's Gun type moments on here. Me and Soldier definitely and to a certain degree My Hump and Telephone. And while none of those are Penitentiary Philosophy as regards to her singing with real vigor, how can you not love the frantic energy of cell or the hellish landscape of Twinkle, whos name serves a dual purpose. Named after the little twinkling note throughout and to draw contrast to the fact that this song is not Twinkly at all.....They don't know their language, They don't know their God. How fucking tragic.

I loved how you drew the Radiohead contrast and I completely appreciate that about this album. Towards the end of My People she gasps...Good Morning, did you have a dream?... I see this album TOTALLY as a dream landscape. Dreams.....

You can walk with your mother through a forest and come upon a pregnant 98 year old black woman. You and your mother lay her down and your mother holds her up while giving you instructions on how to deliver the baby. You look up in panic because you have never delivered a child before. As you look up you see that your mother and the old black woman have traded places and that it is the old woman propping up your mother and that she is giving birth to you. With that realization you are transported into the womb to experience your own birth. And all this can happen without ever once questioning the reality of it! Does nobody use their imagination when listening to music?

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

Probably not and even less thanks to music videos.
[Edited 3/7/08 13:52pm]

why is this not a sticky any more?

Graycap23 said:

NO he dont like this album and is dissing it bad, they must be accustomed to verse bridge chorus cheap fade-out endings

paisleypark4 said:

lol.....

JackieBlue said:

Yeah, many want microwaved instant meals or 30 second drive through. Hopefully the art of selecting, smelling and sampling the ingredients, setting the time to cook them into a delicious dish and savouring every bite of your labors is not lost for good. This is a damn fine meal

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

i made chicken soup from scratch a couple days ago

horatio said:

paisleypark4 said:

I actually was gonna mention that Erykah has been transitioning away from typical structure for some time now and prepping the fans with WWU and her concerts.

I also think she rarely does stuff by happenstance even down to the spelling of her chosen name. But some criticisms remind me of what the teacher tells the student that can't get through a book of enlightenment, you're not ready.

First of all, let me start this post with saying that I am a huge Badu fan - have all her albums and been to her concerts. I love that she is so much different from all the gals out there. She has a tremendous personality and does not give a damn about what people would like her to be. Notwithstading all that, I must say that musically-wise her latest effort is by far the worst from her. Where the heck has her unique, powerful singing gone? Where have gone the universal lyrics? Instead she's dwelling in unintelligible rants that are nothing more than pseudo-social commentary. To make matters even worse, the production of the disc is just horrible. I like what Madlib, ?love and the other producers have been doing but their input into "New Amerykah" simply mars the album. There's no groove, the compositions sound cluttered or unfinished (the latter even confirmed by Erykah herself in the liner notes to some cuts). "Telephone", which could have been a progressive hip-hop masterpiece, is an unimaginative noodling piece of self-indulgence. The best of the bunch is "Soldier" with something reminiscent of a hook. But that's all there is to get hooked with.

On a more postive note, I like the fact that Badu's been constantly evolving as an artist. However, with "New Amerykah" she misses it badly. I was hoping for a consistent concept album but this one is merely sketches of abstract musical ideas without any direction. Don't even try comparing it to "The Rainbow Children".
[Edited 3/8/08 3:17am]
[Edited 3/8/08 11:08am]

I think what some are missing is the very thing you guys are criticizing the cd for not being is the very reason why many DO like it.


I like that its disjointed, incomplete and self indulgent. I like the chanting.

Its like organized chaos to me. I GET it!

and i'm no weed head. I don't listen to the bassline or how a lyric should have been phrased....but how a song simply makes me FEEL. This is FEELING cd. She wasn't trying to be technically correct.

JackieBlue said:

Lol.....organized noise that does NOT sound worth a damn? U are correct, I'm NOT ready and neither are my ears.

Papaj said:

Whatever happened to being unique though?
Who said that every song in the world must be an Americanized hit chart topping album?


U talk Self indulgance....how about self-love.
The way she speaks about wanting to stop smoking dope because things are hard is a tale any single mother can tell you. "That Hump"

Telephone was written for Dilla who passed away in 2007. Self indulgant?

The Cell is about a woman who uses her body to take away the pain in her life.. is self indulgant?

Master Teacher is for PRAISE of brothers and sisters who are positive is self indulgant? "If there were no niggas and only master teachers I'd stay woke". ARE YOU LISTENING to her or yourself?

Stay WOKE, u sleepin on it. Stay in the box, we understand.

I've been joking with Rhonda about this project. "I bet it's a great album to listen to, if you're ," were my words. (Calhoun, I could have bought Alice Smith's CD instead, right?)

Anyway, my thoughts:

What I like:

The Roy Ayers involvement and Curtis Mayfield nod. (But the project's catchiest hooks belong to other folks. That's the downside to that.)

I appreciate the late-70s/early-80s vibe that wafts throughout, and I like how so much of Badu's sound templates are cyclical. She debuted with her feet firmly planted in the neo-soul stuff, but her follow-ups have featured stylings that could be lifted from different eras. "Honey," on this project, sounds like something straight from 1982 R&B radio.

Second, some of the tracks have some decent musicianship moments.


What I dislike:

"What good do your words do if they can't understand you?" She should have asked herself that, a few times throughout handling this project.

I get the sense that Badu wants to reach people, to affect our perspectives and belief systems for the betterment of the world. That she esteems her art as playing a role in that kind of movement is what separates her from many of her counterparts.

But, I think a lot of what hinders this from being a good project is that most people probably don't think we need Badu to educate us, we don't look to her as a guru with The Answer and a lot of what she puts forth on the album isn't revolutionary (I was hearing this sort of stuff at the HBCU I attended, almost 2 decades ago). It's just new agey psychobabble to a lot of folks. So, I totally see where the "Rainbow Children" comparisons have merit. TRC doesn't hit its stride, to me, until a few tracks in. When it finally does, it maintains cohesion and rhythm.

But, Badu's project is scattered, unfocused and comes off a bit lazy to me. Her singing's lazy, the writing's lazy (the concepts are OK. I get it, even the sci-fi-ness of it all. But the concepts' execution is pretty inconsistent), the production is hit-or-miss... And, the chanting creeps me out.

I think she could have done better. And, if she's trying to pass off clutter and scatteredness as signs of enlightenment (which is the reasoning I'm hearing on this thread), I'm dreading Part II.

ThreadBare said:

many of these tracks are at least one - two years old....I heard The Healer well over a year ago Live.....all of the enlightenment stuff... I don't feel enlightened but its just a cool experience.

I think some of ya'll musicians think too deeply when ya'll listen to stuff.... (Thread and Gray)

I have to be honest with you playas, and interrupt this yay-fest.

I did enjoy this album to some extent. I bought it for my Album of the Month for February.

And I think I wasted an Album of the Month.

I got her message for her songs and digged some of the groove.

But I didn't get the lazy put-together for the CD.

OVERALL SCORE: B+

I liked it. It wasn't all boombastic.
Its flow psychologically bizarre.
Like waking up from and recalling a vivid dream.
And if thats what she/they meant to do they certainly pulled it off quite well.
Maybe something like Steve Wonders Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants.

Last 2 albums I bought were this and Jill Scott, Real Thing Words & Sounds Volume 3: Includes Dvd

From the 2 I have to admit I have enjoyed Jill Scotts.

I must admit tho. I need to give Erykah more of a play but it hasn't grabbed me like Jill.

Years from now it will be described as a Masterpiece.

end.

I’m stuck to the floor of its sticky soul and can’t bear to leave when the credits roll.

ThreadBare said:

here i was all ready to pull my pants down and declare my devotion and then you took a quick turn to hate-ville.

sosgemini said:

Dude, keep your pants on. I'm not hating. I have most of her albums. She just seemed to have gotten lost in the "Puff" this time.

sosgemini said:

paisleypark4 said:

lol.....a master piece of Sh*t.....and the END of her career.

Rhondab said:

CO-SIGN INFINITELY!

How much you wanna bet Return of the Ankh is going to be what people who aren't feeling this album want?

I still gotta pick it up... as a person who bought Worldwide Underground THREE separate times I'll say this: I'm gonna take my time w/ it & give it several listens before I form an opinion on it. I think w/ her we want her shit to be instant, like the first album & Mama's Gun, but some of it just has to grow on you (like WU did over years). I just hope I like it