Sporting a huge fake afro instead of her traditional head wrap, Erykah Badu took the stage around 9 p.m. Thursday at the Newport, and rocked the house with a fusion of hip-hop, soul and jazz.
The singer, songwriter, producer, disk jockey and actress performed a plethora of classic songs and unreleased material, exhibiting her diverse musical background. Badu delivered a smooth program, despite the Newport’s faulty speaker system.
Although her style has been categorized as neo-soul, Badu incorporates much more diversity into her performances. Supported by a huge live band, Badu scratches her own records, sings, raps, dances and uses a keyboard to make her own beats.
The woman does it all, including making political statements like “F*** war” and “The opposite of love is fear.”
The singer came out with the earlier hits from her debut album “Baduizum.” She dabbled into music from her most recent album “Mama’s Gun” and even included lyrics from her appearance on the Outkast album “Stankonia.”
For a portion of the show, an African tribal singer and dancer performed while Badu created beats on her keyboard.
The show was impressive and got even better when Common joined Badu on stage. Rumors abound of the pairs ongoing presence at each other’s shows throughout the last few years, but they have not confirmed any part of their relationship.
The two performed a duet of “Love of my Life,” which is Badu’s latest video. The song was the highlight of the night with Common and Badu both exchanging freestyles and singing together. “Love of my Life” is an overall tribute to hip-hop music and defiantly had the crowd into it.
At times Badu’s voice seemed to recall a bit of a Billie Holiday-Louis Armstrong jazziness with a fusion of hip-hop and southern warmth. The singer is great live and the show was a blend of premium music by quality musicians.
Perhaps by making the ticket prices a little steep and not putting Common’s name on the bill, Badu is trying to draw true fans and weed out the MTV trend followers. Regardless, it was worth every penny if one can appreciate good music and probably one of the best shows anyone will see at the Newport this year.
