Erykah Badu
- Erykah Badu was born Erica Abi Wright. She changed her name to Erykah because she thought her original name was a “slave name.” The “kah” in Erykah represents the inner self, and the “Badu” is her favorite jazz scat sound.
- In the early 90s, Erykah Badu’s ambition was to be a rapper known as ‘MC Apples.’ Badu opened up a Dallas show for Notorious B.I.G in 1994 where she performed the song “On and On” for the first time. She would go on to open for rap acts like A Tribe Called Quest, Mobb Deep and the Wu-Tang Clan.
- Badu attended Grambling University where she majored in theatre and minored in Quantum Physics. She left college to follow her dreams of being a singer.
- In 2005, Erykah Badu launched her own label Control FreaQ with the goal of freeing “the slaves and the slave masters” by allowing signed artists to own their own masters in a 10-year conversion deal.
- Erykah Badu has won four Grammys