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Badu's voice isn't cuddly or cozy; it's sharp and metallic at points, wounded and sad at others. Most of the songs on Baduizm are slow, supple and subtle. Certainly, with its naked gurgling bass, feels like a wee-hours jazz improv and sounds like a love ballad; it's actually a look at the dysfunctional "love affair" America has with its black citizens. Drama, despite its title, starts placidly but later crests as Badu laments symptoms of modern life: "race relations/ segregation/ no occupation/ world inflation..."
Her new video should also give the singer a boost. The lush clip, inspired by the movie The Color Purple (one scene takes place in a jook joint), is receiving heavy play on Black Entertainment Television, and Badu, in her distinctive head wrap, cuts a sleek, striking figure. Badu hopes that she can help change what she calls the "monotonous" nature of contemporary R. and B. "I want to be the midwife to a new sound," she says. Baduizm is a gentle but firm slap that may bring neo-soul to robust life.