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Erykah Badu’s debut album, Baduizm, was released in 1997 and almost overnight established her as one of the leading and most original female voices in R&B. Often compared to the legendary Billie Holiday, Badu (born Erica Wright) has incorporated a variety of musical styles to create a unique, richly textured sound. She has also collaborated in recent years with a number of different groups, including The Roots and Burning Spear.
David Scheinbaum’s portrait of Badu shows her in performance in 2003, the year in which she released her fourth album, Worldwide Underground, and won a Grammy Award for the best R&B song, “Love of My Life (An Ode to Hip Hop).”
