Erykah Badu and D'Angelo in 2000

Tomorrow is February 29, a bonus day in this Black History Month, even though it's still the shortest month of the year.  (Not to mention that Black History should be so much more embedded in US History...)

I've given quite so much love and gratitude to Tori Amos recently, it might look like I'm a little crazy.  (That might be said, but few have moved me to act and write like her.)  (Oh, and I am crazy, I hope in a good way.)

Of those few, Erykah Badu's Mama's Gun and D'Angelo's Voodoo, both released in the year 2000, were the soundtrack to my life after Y2K didn't shut us all down.  Interestingly, in 1999 Tori Amos put out an album that really did not resonate with me as a whole, so my ears were seeking.

These two albums were like a brother and sister taking turns in my Oldsmobile Alero CD slot.  They got me to and from work, Fannie C. Williams Middle School in New Orleans Upper 9th ward.  They taught me how to hear black people, how to hear from black people, and how to pay attention to life around me.  My students were also making me mix tapes, (my Alero actually had that slot too!) of Juvenile, Destiny's Child, DMX, the 504 Boyz, and their own personal free-styling.

But it's these two that really taught me how to be loved by my new New Orleans' community.

Happy Leap Day.  Take a leap back and check the full albums out if you don't know them before Black History Month is in your rear view mirror.  Stay in touch @matthewjschmitt

And without any further ado,

check out verses of D'Angelo and Badu

From Penitentiary Philosophy (above)
Oh why can't we get along and
Take all the funky tones
And make up a funky song
That be bangin on and on
Make me mad when I see ya sad
With the same look ya momma had
But ya can't win when your will is weak
But ya get out ya seat
Oh why Why Why world
Do you want me to be so mad
So mad yeah - Badu

from ....& On

Bridge!

I remember when I went

With Momma to the Washateria

Remember how I felt the day

I first started my period

Remember there in school one day

I learned I was inferior

Water in my cereal - Badu

Bag Lady (below) 

Let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go

Ooh, ooh

Girl you don't need it

I betcha love can make it better - Badu

From Playa Playa (above)

We came here to rip sXXX

Strip U of your clout

Later 4 all y' all HATERS

We gon' turn this motha' out

If U came to ball u gonna lose it all

We don' t plan 2 stop

Til U bounce off the wall

Til U bouncin off the wall- D'Angelo

From Devil's Pie
Who am I to justify
All the evil in our eye
When I myself feel the high
From all that I despise

Behind the jail or in the grave
I have to lay in this bed I made
If I die before I wake
I Hope the lord dont' hesitate
2 get 2 heaven done been through hell
Tell my peeps all is well
All them fools whose soul's 4 sale
Sitting next to the Jezebel - D'Angelo

From Chicken Grease

If you wanna come on down 2 the front

baby yo it's cool everybody fakin the funk

i'ma put u in school, take a lesson from adolescence 2 man

I got the music and the instruments use em as my weapons at hand

everybody on the floor if u listening 2 me

clap your hands stomp your feet

I just wanna put u down (yeah)

I just want ya all 2 get down (yeah)

everybody come get down 2 the chicken grease (yeah) - D'Angelo

Africa (left)
Africa is my descent
and here I'm far from home
I dwell within a land that's meant
meant for many men not my tone

The blood of god is my defense
let it drop down 2 my seed
showers 2 your innocense
2 protect U for all eternity
and with this wood I beat this drum
and we won't see defeat - D'Angelo





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone