Erykah Badu – best known for her role in the rise of the neo soul sub-genre, and for her peculiar, intellectual musical style and fashion sense – opens up on her 1997 debut project “Baduizm”. In a recent interview with Fuse, the American hip hop artist shared her experiences while recording the highly acclaimed debut album.

The acclaimed Queen of Neo-Soulplaced her successful hip hop material in context. During the interview, she explained that her African roots played a huge part of shaping her musical career. She reveals: “If the headwrap was my trademark, the drums, African drums, were my soundtrack. I never really thought about a lot of the things people labeled my lyrics for music as. ’94 to ’97, I was at a really interesting place in my life. I was embracing, very much, my culture, my African heritage, which is one part of me,” she said. “Africa has always been a staple in my household and in my life. The drums mean an awful lot to me. It’s just who I was at the time, and I wanted to be completely who I was when I did what I did.”

To the delight of her fans, Badu also reflected on her most memorable songs from the recording sessions: “My most memorable song is ‘Otherside of the Game.’ When I turned in that demo, ‘Otherside of the Game’ was not there, the song ‘Sometimes’ was not there. Those songs were done as a collaboration with The Roots. I met The Roots after I got my record deal. The album was ready to go, but I persuaded the label to let me just go to Philly right quick.”