The great soul weirdo Erykah Badu hasn't released a full-length project since 2015's But You Caint Use My Phone, and even that was a mixtape-style meditation on connection, not a proper album. But Badu continues to operate in a space where albums don't matter. She still plays festivals and makes media appearances (including, most recently, a verse during a BET Hip-Hop Awards Cypher). And every once in a while, she'll sneak some new music out into the world. She did that today.
As Pitchfork points out, Badu recently put together a mix for the Sound Of Color series, a mix series from the London online radio station NTS. Badu's two-hour mix is called "The Sound Of Green," and it is dedicated to the late jazz trumpeter Roy Hargrove, who died over the weekend. The mix is a predictably unpredictable affair. And somewhere in the middle of the mix, Badu introduces an extremely short new untitled song.
Badu apparently recorded the track with the Cannabinoids, a Dallas band that she's worked with a few times over the years. It's a brief jazzy lurch with lyrics like these: "Money can't buy me love, but it can keep me in some fresh shit." And as soon as it's over, Badu plays an old Lil Scrappy song. And then an older Pink Floyd song. (The songs on the mix are generally about money, see.) Listen to the mix here; the new song starts at the 1:05:04 mark.
