BORN: February 26, 1972
Erykah Badu was born Erica Wright in Dallas, Texas, in 1972. Her mother raised her single handily along with Erykah's brother and sister, since their father had left the family home early on in their lives.
In order to provide for her family, the children's grandmother often helped in looking after them while Erykah's mother, Kollen Wright, performed as an actress in various theatrical productions.
Having been influenced significantly by her mother, Erica Wright (or Erykah Badu as she would later become known to her legions of fans) had her first taste of showbiz at the tender age of 4, singing and dancing with her mother at the Dallas Theatre Centre.
Free-styling at a local radio station
By the age of 14, Erykah was free-styling for a local radio station alongside such talent as Roy Hargrove, who, incidentally, was a talented beat-boxer back in the 80's and who is now a very successful session musician in his own right.
Changing her name
In her early youth, she decided to change the spelling of her name from Erica to Erykah, as she firmly believed her original name to be her 'slave' name. The term 'kah' signifies the inner self, which, when translated from Muslim, means 'can do no wrong'.
Her surname, Badu, derives from an Arabic word which means 'to manifest truth and light'.
Erykah free
After completing her theatre studies at university in 1993, Erykah Badu decided to concentrate on her music.
She began to teach children how to sing and dance, whilst also performing in a hip-hop act with her cousin entitled Erykah Free.
Legacy entertainment
The following year Erykah met Tim Grace, of Legacy Entertainment. He listened to a demo once and decided to sign the young hip-hop duo without further hesitation.
He then successfully managed to book Erykah Free to open for such established hip-hop crews as A Tribe Called Quest and Arrested Development.
Meeting Kedar
The Erykah Free demo tape eventually fell into the hands of Kedar Massenburg, the man who guided D'angelo in the early stages of the singer's career.
Kedar then invited Erykah to act as support to D'angelo at one of his concerts, and was so impressed with her performance that he signed her to his new Kedar Entertainment label.
Unlike many of the other record labels that relied on insipid sounds for the majority of their respective acts, Erykah found that with her new employers she was indeed 'free' to experiment with her own special brand of vibe.
Unfortunately though, the record deal was for Erykah to perform as a solo artist - and after much deliberation with her cousin (who rather unselfishly and sportingly told Erykah to "go for it"), Erykah Free dismembered.
