The Best Erykah Badu Songs

[Complex Magazine features Erykah Badu's 20 best songs including 7 songs co-written/produced by James Poyser.]

For nearly two decades, Erykah Badu has been one of the most unique and essential voices in popular music. From breaking through with the multi-platinum Baduizm in 1997 and changing the sound of R&B radio to the increasingly political and avant-garde leanings of her New Amerykah albums, she has remained a restlessly daring creative force and a fiercely unique vocalist.

No longer pigeonholed with the “neo-soul” tag or early comparisons to Billie Holiday, Erykah Badu is an artist whose body of work has gotten richer and more complex with time. Even though she hasn’t released a new album in nearly five years, she remains as relevant as ever. And just as she has reemerged from previous lengthy hiatuses, we’ll be ready to listen whenever she comes back with something new. In the meantime, these are the best Erykah Badu songs from her solo releases, with a tip of the hat to some of the great collaborations that she’s done with contemporaries like the Roots and OutKast.

20. “Otherside of the Game” (1997)

The third single from Baduizm is sung from the perspective of a woman whose beau is involved in some risky business. And it’s the ambivalence of the song, wrestling with the instinct to support his hustle and concerns about safety, that makes it compelling and universal, even as it’s easy to imagine the modern-day circumstances being described. “Brotha’s got this complex occupation/And it ain’t that he don’t have education/’Cause I was right there at his graduation.”

18. “I Want You” (2003)

Although the less than three years between Mama’s Gun and Worldwide Underground actually represent one of the shorter waits between Badu projects, she was apparently dealing with some writer’s block at the time. In early 2003, she took the few new songs she had on the road, along with her greatest hits for the Frustrated Artist Tour, to help drum up inspiration to finish the record. One of the songs from that tour, “I Want You,” wound up at the 10-minute centerpiece of Worldwide Underground, a nominal EP that featured nearly an hour of new music.

16. “Jump Up in the Air and Stay There” (2010)

Both of the New Amerykah albums were cohesive and offbeat affairs with few concessions to radio. And two of the most immediate and accessible songs on each album wound up relegated to bonus tracks. “Honey” was an unlisted hidden track at the end of 4th World War, and “Jump Up in the Air and Stay There,”—a collaboration with one of the biggest rappers in the world—only appeared on the iTunes deluxe edition of Return of the Ankh. Lil Wayne famously asked, “Where is Erykah Badu at?” on his 2008 hit “A Milli,” shortly before she returned from a few years out of the spotlight. And in appreciation of the name check, she invited Weezy to contribute a verse to the studio version of the warped, funky live favorite “Jump Up in the Air and Stay There.”

15. “Telephone” (2008)

Erykah Badu was one of many musicians deeply affected by the loss of J Dilla in 2006. And she composed one of the most moving of the many elegies written for the producer, inspired by a story told to Badu by Dilla’s mother at his funeral. Apparently, Dilla had a dream, shortly before his death, about Ol’ Dirty Bastard giving him directions home. That poignant image informs the chorus of “Telephone,” a gorgeous seven-minute ballad that features liberal use of a siren sample Dilla often used in his tracks.

12. “Green Eyes” (2000)

Erykah Badu’s relationship with Andre 3000 had dissolved by the fall of 2000, when both artists released songs inspired by the experience. By far the most famous one was OutKast’s chart-topper “Ms. Jackson,” which dealt with the familial fallout of a couple with a child together breaking up. But Badu’s Mama’s Gun had its own tales of heartbreak, most memorably on this playful, jazzy tale of jealousy: “My eyes are green because I eat a lot of vegetables/It don’t have nothin’ to do with your new friend.” As the song unfurls several sections over the course of 10 minutes, however, the emotional territory becomes far more complex and mournful (“I know our love will never be the same/But I can’t stand this growing pain”).

9. “Danger” (2003)

The intro to Worldwide Underground’s “Danger” features a callback to one of Badu’s earlier singles, “Otherside of the Game,” sampling the line “The brotha’s got this complex occupation.” The song that follows is something of a spiritual sequel to that song, though a much more aggressive and up-tempo take on the same subject matter.

8. “Window Seat” (2010)

The lead single to 2010’s Return of the Ankh was Badu’s biggest radio hit in nearly a decade. It caught the ear of one of radio rap’s biggest stars of the moment, Rick Ross, who hopped on an official remix of “Window Seat” that further helped drive the song’s popularity. And Badu returned the favor by appearing on Ross’s next album, Teflon Don. “Window Seat” also gained some infamy for its controversial music video, in which Badu walks through the streets of Dallas, taking off her clothes in front of on-lookers, and is then taken down by a simulated assassination by sniper.

1. “The Healer” (2008)

New Amerykah Part One: 4th World War begins with “Amerykahn Promise,” a funk sample fanfare with minimal, distorted vocals welcoming you into the album’s atmosphere. But the next track, the Madlib-produced “The Healer,” is the hypnotic, otherworldly masterpiece that truly keys you into this new era of Erykah Badu’s music. Name-checking God in several different languages, Badu then announces “It’s bigger than religion: hip-hop.”