{"id":4801,"date":"2025-10-15T12:54:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T12:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/4801\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T12:54:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T12:54:09","slug":"how-dangelo-helped-launch-the-career-of-dallas-erykah-badu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/4801\/","title":{"rendered":"How D\u2019Angelo helped launch the career of Dallas\u2019 Erykah Badu"},"content":{"rendered":"

If not for R&B singer D\u2019Angelo<\/a>, who died Tuesday of pancreatic cancer at age 51, the world might never have known Erykah Badu<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The year was 1995 and the future \u201cQueen of Neo-Soul\u201d was still Erica Wright. A South Dallas native, she\u2019d graduated from Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts<\/a> and studied theater at Grambling State University in Louisiana. Back home in Dallas, she\u2019d formed Erykah Free, a vocal\/rap duo with Robert \u201cFree\u201d Bradford, her older cousin.<\/p>\n

In March, they got their first big break: A gig at South By Southwest in Austin<\/a>, where she gave the duo\u2019s demo CD to Mobb Deep\u2019s manager, who in turn passed it along to Kedar Massenburg, manager of the rising soul singer D\u2019Angelo.<\/p>\n

When Massenburg played it for D\u2019Angelo in his car, the singer\u2019s eyes lit up.<\/p>\n

News Roundups<\/p>\n

Catch up on the day’s news you need to know.<\/p>\n

By signing up, you agree to our\u00a0Terms of Service<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cHe was like, \u2018Yo, Key,\u2019 man, she\u2019s incredible! You gotta let me produce the album,\u201d Massenburg told Billboard in 2017. \u201cI said, \u2018Nah, D, you couldn\u2019t even finish your own album! You think I\u2019m gonna let you produce Erykah?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

D\u2019Angelo finally released his critically acclaimed debut album, Brown Sugar, in July 1995 and hit the road, including a November show at Caravan of Dreams in Fort Worth. Massenburg quickly arranged for Badu to open for D\u2019Angelo that night, and the producer flew into town to meet her and see her perform.<\/p>\n

Massenburg obviously liked what he saw. In short order, he signed her to a management deal, landed her a solo contract with Universal Records and put her in the studio with D\u2019Angelo to duet on the Marvin Gaye\/Tammi Terrell hit \u201cYour Precious Love.\u201d Their smoldering version came out in 1996 on the soundtrack to High School High, a quickly-forgotten Jon Lovitz comedy.<\/p>\n

But her fortunes flipped months later when she released her debut album, Baduizm<\/a>. It instantly struck a chord on radio and MTV, selling three million copies and winning Grammys for R&B album and female R&B performance. Looking back, Badu has called D\u2019Angelo a kindred spirit and \u201ca true artist.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c[Massenburg] understood that what me and D\u2019Angelo had in common was not that we sounded alike, but that we didn\u2019t sound like what was happening [in music at the time],\u201d she told GQ.<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\"Dallas<\/p>\n

Nearly two decades later, as D\u2019Angelo was putting the final touches on his 14-years-in-the-making Black Messiah album, Badu said she was just as eager as everyone else to hear her old friend\u2019s new record.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we need that,\u201d she said. \u201cThe world needs that voice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Erykah<\/a>Erykah Badu\u2019s first album in 15 years is delayed<\/a><\/p>\n

The Dallas R&B legend shared the news on Instagram Thursday night.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>Dallas\u2019 Black Academy of Arts and Letters shares plans for renovation<\/a><\/p>\n

The downtown arts group will be relocating to Fair Park before the overhaul.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If not for R&B singer D\u2019Angelo, who died Tuesday of pancreatic cancer at age 51, the world might…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4802,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[5155,102,104,103,5154,278,4661],"class_list":["post-4801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-booker-t-washington-high-school-for-the-performing-and-visual-arts","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-erykah-badu","tag-music","tag-pop-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}