For the past quarter century, the soul and R&B singer Erykah Badu has spent about eight months each year on the road performing.
“It’s what I do, completely,” Badu, 54, told Popcast, The New York Times’ music show, in an interview last month. “And it completes me.”
“I’m from the theater, so I feel very at home — it’s my therapy,” she added. “I’m not wrong in that place, in front of that mic. I am accepted and applauded.”
Yet for an artist of Badu’s range and influence, she has released comparatively little music. Since her three-times platinum debut, “Baduizm,” in 1997, and its beloved 2000 follow-up, “Mama’s Gun,” which helped to define the vaunted neo-soul movement, Badu has released just three more albums over the next 25 years, plus a 2015 phone-themed mixtape and a sprinkling of singles.
Instead, in addition to her near-constant touring, the singer has raised three children, experimented with acting and become a dedicated doula for both birth and death. “But when I have something to say,” Badu said, “I write an album.”
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