Fifty Years of Erykah Badu
The Dallas legend turns 50. Here are a few of our favorite moments, with a focus on how she lifted us all up during quarantine.
By Taylor Crumpton
Published in
Arts & Entertainment
February 26, 2021
2:29 pm
Fifty years ago, Erica Wright was born. In her teenage years, Wright rapped under the moniker Apples, a young female MC in The Fresh Ones and The DEF Ones, one of the first hip-hop groups in Dallas. In her twenties, Wright re-introduced herself as Erica Free, a jazz singer who incubated one of the first cyphers for the city’s underground hip-hop community with Cold Cris and Big Ben. Now, she’s known to the world as Erykah Badu, the four-time Grammy winner.