Motown's 4-time Grammy award winning singer/songwriter returns after a 5 year hiatus with 'New Amerykah Part One (4th World War),' released on her birthday. Though Badu's multifarious musical roots of soul, jazz, and hip hop do collide to make sweet chaos, it is her organic hip hop sensibilities that pervade her new opus.

Acclaimed producers Mike “Chav” Chavaria, 9th Wonder, Madlib, Shafiq Husayn, Om'Mas Keith and Taz Arnold of Sa-Ra, Kariem Riggins, Ahmir ‘?uestlove’ Thompson of The Roots and James Poyser lend their wax expertise, and she enlisted guest performers Bilal, Roy Hargrove, Omar Rodríguez-López (Mars Volta), Amen Khum Rah and Georgia Anne Muldrow.

Written and co-directed by Badu, the first single “Honey” sets Badu in a classic hip hop scenario as she browses through vinyl at a local record shop, her face super-imposed on covers of Nas' 'Illmatic,' De La Soul’s '3 Feet High and Rising,' and Eric B. and Rakim’s 'Paid In Full' - “album covers [that] represent all the influences that she embodies," says co-director Chris Robinson. "Telephone" is Badu's artful tribute to the late J Dilla, inspired by the conversation she had with Yancey's mother on his passing. In "The Healer," produced by Madlib, Badu poetically advocates for hip hop as the world's cure-all music genre where finger cymbals, thick bass, triangles and an echoing choir surround her esoteric, spoken-word vocals. 'New Amerykah' is chock full of all of Erykah's complexities, emblems of modern society and ideas of self-revolution - just take a closer look at the cover art.

"Honey" Video