Erykah Badu was born Erica Abi Wright in Dallas, Texas. Her mother raised her, her brother Eevin, and her sister Nayrok alone after separating from their father, William Wright Jr. To provide for her family, the children's maternal and paternal grandmothers often helped look after them. Badu had her first taste of show business at the age of four, singing and dancing at the Dallas Theater Center and The Black Academy of Arts and Letters (TBAAL) under the guidance of her godmother, Gwen Hargrove, and uncle TBAAL founder Curtis King.

In May 2013, Badu announced she was writing her next project, but not placing a time constraint on it. In July 2014, Badu revealed she was still working on the album and had been recording in April in Africa where she was "laying down drum tracks". Badu also said that prior to her trip to Africa she would have meetings with her record label to set a deadline for the album. Later that year Badu expanded on the album, stating she was working with producer Flying Lotus, who she met via MySpace years ago; they later met in L.A. at guitarist Steve Wilson's house. In 2015 Badu appeared on "Rememory", a song from Donnie Trumpet & The Social Experiment's album Surf. In July 2015, Badu released a free mixtape of her favorite recordings, describing the set as "carefully and lovingly selected high frequency tones for the soul." The mixtape features mostly vintage funk, soul and jazz songs. On March 26, 2015, Erykah Badu performed at The Bomb Factory in her hometown, Dallas, Texas, for the Deep Ellum venue's grand opening. The sold-out show also featured fellow Dallas native, singer-songwriter Sarah Jaffe.  In early October, Badu released a remix of Drake's single "Hotline Bling", and later released a mixtape, But You Caint Use My Phone, on November 27, 2015, making it available for digital download and streaming exclusively through Apple Music. After one week of exclusive release on iTunes, But You Caint Use My Phone was released to other digital retailers and streaming services on December 4, 2015. The mixtape was released without the knowledge of her label Universal, due to Badu sending the record straight to iTunes. It also marked Badu's first release under her own record label, Control Freaq. But You Caint Use My Phone received generally positive reviews from critics and debuted at number 14 on the Billboard 200, selling 35,000 equivalent album units in its first week. Badu also hosted the 2015, 2016 and the 2017 Soul Train Music Awards.  Badu held her annual "Still Boomin'" sold-out birthday bash concert at The Bomb Factory on February 26, 2016, marking her second performance at the venue since its grand opening 11 months earlier. The event was hosted by Badu's close friend Dave Chappelle and featured a surprise appearance by Outkast frontman Andre 3000. Badu enlisted Dallas local hip hop acts -topic, Zach Witness, and Cameron McCloud as her supporting acts.

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