New Amerykah has since received excellent reviews from numerous critics across the country, praised for its mixture of personal content with political commentary. It has also done extremely well on the Billboard Charts, debuting at number two on the Billboard 200 and selling over 120,000 albums in its first week. Its second week performed well but not as strongly, dropping to number six on the charts and selling only over 41,000 copies. So far it has sold a grand total of close to 300,000 copies.

New Amerykah contains the following songs:

Amerykhan Promise
The Healer
Me
My People
Solider
The Cell
Twinkle
Master Teacher
That Hump
Telephone
Honey
Real Thang
Real Thang (Green Lantern Remix)

There has been speculation for some time that Badu was pregnant but it only became formally known in mid-July that the singer was actually pregnant. And by then Badu had had enough of the rumors, striking back at critics who consider her choice of lifestyle less than moral.

She even went so far as to say that she doesn’t need any fans who continue to disapprove of her pregnancy or choice of fathers. Pretty heavy, that, but it’s her life, so who’s to argue with her?

The father of the child is suspected to be her current boyfriend, rapper Jay Electronica.

“Bag Lady” proved very successful on the charts, hitting the Billboard Top 10 and peaking at sixth. It also hit the top of the Hip-Hop charts and remained there for a notable seven weeks.

Of particular note in “Bag Lady” was the choice to film the entire music video on a Mini DV recording device - not the best of quality, but a good way to portray more unique and personal experiences. The end result looks rather like a home movie.

The album is focused particularly on breakups, self-esteem and difficulties dealing with the police. The latter topic was dealt with primarily in “A.D. 2000″, which served as an elegy for a recently-landed immigrant mistaken for a rapist by the NYPD and shot to death.

The album did extremely well despite only having three singles come of it, receiving high sales and a great deal of critical praise. Badu was nominated for three Grammies for two of her songs on the record, though she won none of them, and the album was heralded as one of the top 10 albums of the year by Rolling Stone magazine.

Mama’s Gun contains the following tracks:

“Penitentiary Philosophy”
“Didn’t Cha Know?”
“My Life”
“…& On”
“Cleva”
“Hey Sugah”
“Booty”
“Kiss Me on My Neck (Hesi)”
“A.D. 2000″
“Orange Moon”
“In Love With You”
“Bag Lady”
“Time’s a Wastin”
“Green Eyes”

Specifically (as the title of the song suggests), the Erykah Badu Apple Tree song relates to the tree of knowledge that Adam and Eve picked from and gained knowledge of their nakedness (even though the ‘fruit’ in the biblical version is ambiguous, it is most often popularly portrayed as an apple).

In the song, however, Badu suggests that picking her fruit is the smart thing to do. She describes the song as dedicated to “all of the Creator’s righteous children”, and offers food to the listener. Not “that edible food,” though, but “some food for thought”. She goes on to describe herself as carrying a ho and planting seeds, “so I reaps / What I sow”, perhaps suggesting that she’ll benefit from the knowledge she’s spreading to people.

Knowledge that, hopefully, is of a good nature.

Here’s Erykah Badu’s Apple Tree Song with Lyrics below:

Erykah Badu’s Apple Tree Lyrics

I’d like to dedicate this to all of the Creator’s righteous children.
I have some food in my bag for you.
Not that edible food — the food you eat?
No. I have some food for thought.
Since knowledge is infinite it has infinitely fell on me.
So umm…

It was a stormy night
you know the kind where the lightning strike
and I was hangin’ out wit some of my “artsy” friends
ooh wee ooh wee oooh
The night was long the night went on
people coolin’ out until the break of dawn
incense was burnin’ so I’m feelin right — ah’ight

See I picks my friends like I pick my fruit
& Ganny told me that when I was only a youth
I don’t go ’round trying to be what I’m not
I don’t waste my time trying ta get what you got
I work at pleasin’ me cause I can’t please you
and that’s why I do what I do
My soul flies free like a willow tree
doo wee doo wee do wee

And if you don’t want to be down with me
You don’t want to pick from my appletree
And if you don’t want to be down with me
Then you don’t want to pick from my appletree
And if you don’t want to be down with me
Then you don’t want to pick from my appletree
And if you don’t want to be down with me
You just don’t want to be down

I have a ho
and I take it everywhere I go
Cause I’m planting seeds
so I reaps What I sow — ya know
Oh on & on & on & on
my cipher keeps movin’ like a rollin’ stone
I can’t control the soul flowin’ in me
ooh wee

See I picks my friends like I pick my fruit
& Ganny told me that when I was only a youth
I don’t walk around trying to be what I’m not
I don’t waste my time trying ta get what you got
I work at pleasin’ me cause I can’t please you
and that’s why I do what I do
My soul flies free like a willow tree
doo wee doo wee do wee

And if you don’t want to be down with me,
You don’t want to pick from my appletree [x3]
And if you don’t want to be down with me
You just don’t want to be down

Oh my my my
Oh my my my
Oh my my my ahh
Oh my my my my my my my
Ohh
I picks my friends like I pick my fruit
& Ganny told me that when I was only a youth
I don’t walk around trying to be what I’m not
I don’t waste my time trying ta get what you got
I work at pleasin’ me cause I can’t please you
and that’s why I do what I do
My soul flies free like a willow tree
doo wee doo wee do wee

And if you don’t want to be down with me
You don’t want to pick from my appletree
And if you don’t want to be down with me
You dum dum diddy
And if you don’t want to be down with me
You don’t want to pick from my appletree
And if you don’t want to be down with me
You just don’t want to be down
You just don’t want to be down
Ohh you just don’t want to be down
Down, down, down
You just don’t want to be down
Ohh
You just don’t want to be down
down [x15]
wanna be down
no oh no
You just don’t want to be down
no no no
You just don’t want to be down

As its title suggests Love of My Life is a tribute to the very genre it’s a part of: Hip-Hop. The song personifies Hip-Hop as a friendly influence on Badu (and rapper Common, who also performed in the song) who Badu keeps in touch with through his friend “Mike”, a reference to Badu’s microphone.
The song spent four weeks at number one on the Hot R&B chart, and won both a Soul Train Lady of Soul award and Grammy – Best R&B Song – for its accomplishments. Love of My Life was also featured in the 2002 film Brown Sugar, further entrenching its status as a song that personifies and glorifies the genre of Hip-Hop.
Here’s the music video for Erykah Badu’s Love of My Life (An Ode to Hip-Hop), with lyrics below:

Right here what we gon’ do is go back
Way back, oooh way back yeah

I met him when I was a
A little girl he gave
He gave me poetry
He was my first
But in my heart I knew I
Wasn’t the only one
Cause when the tables turned
He had to break

(Hook)
But whenever I got lonely
Or needed some advice
He gave me his shoulder
His words were very nice
But that is all that I need,
Cause now there is no other
My love is his and his is mine,
My friend became the

(Chorus)
Love of my life
You are my friend
Love of my life
I can depend
Love of my life
Without ya baby
Feels like a simple true love
Yeah oh [?] didn’t clear

(Common)
Uh freak freak y’all and ya don’t stop
Uh to the beat y’all and ya don’t stop
Uh freak freak

Or would it be that it was
All just so simple then
A teenage love but you say
He’s just a friend
He moved around and we kept
In touch through his friend Mike
The world was younger and we knew
We couldn’t rush

(Hook)

(Chorus)

Y’all know how I met her
We broke up and got back together
To get her back I had to sweat her (sweat her)
Thought she roll wit bad boys forever
In many ways them boys made her better
To grow I had to let her (let her)
She needed cheddar and I understood that (that)
Lookin’ for cheese that don’t make her a hood rat (rat)
In fact she’s a queen to me, her light beams on me
I love it when she sings to me
It’s like that and a

(Cuts trough last two lines)
(Love of my life)
Ooh you know you rock my world
(Love of my life)
And you be boy and I’ll be girl
(Love of my life)
And we don’t stop until the break of dawn
(Love of my life)
Ooh you know you rock my world
(Love of my life)
And you be boy and I’ll be girl
(Love of my life)
And we don’t stop until the break of oohhh