Erykah Badu – Mama’s Gun

I came across the neo soul thing a little late, but I immediately recognised a whole different thing. It was taking a whole load of different influences and putting it all together, it was about 50 blends coming together.

When I was a kid driving around, the contemporary soul station was always on, so I have what I call ‘car seat bands’ – bands that bring you back. A lot of it was 70s bands like Earth, Wind & Fire or Roberta Flack – a lot of those temperatures involved. So this takes Earth, Wind & Fire and Sly And The Family Stone and on and on and on. And it’s hearing all of that cool shit that she makes entirely her own thing. I spent a lot of time in the Bay and in Oakland, immersed in those kind of sounds.