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It’s been five years since Erykah Badu released the album “Worldwide Underground” and to reward us for the wait, Miss Badu-ism will release her latest effort “New Amerykah (Part One, 4th World War)” on both CD and USB, the latter of which will include access to exclusive web content and the music video “Honey”.

Speaking of “Honey”, you should probably watch it right now. No, really. Watch it. If you consider yourself a music fan - watch it.

Watch The Video: Honey

Co-directed by Chris Robinson and Erykah (who also brought us the wonderful clip for “Love Of My Life“), “Honey” is an ode to influential albums and the vinyl-heads who collect them. Set in a mom & pop record store, we flip through merchandise with a shopper, pulling out the occasional album to get a closer look - and here’s where the video gets amazing: each record cover becomes a live-action animation of the original album art, with Erykah replacing the original artist on the sleeve. Bam! How fabulous is that.

There’s Erykah as Diana Ross on her “Blue” album. There’s Erykah taking Eric B’s role on Eric B. & Rakim’s “Paid In Full”. Erykah on the cover of The Beatles’ “Let It Be”. Erykah as Nas. Erykah as Grace Jones. Erykah as Olivia Newton John. Erykah, Erykah, Erykah!!

Most notably, an issue of Rolling Stone pops up close to the end of the video and there’s Erykah, getting all Yoko on us, acting out the famous John Lennon/Yoko Ono cover from 1981. But I think the best is when De La Soul’s “Three Feet High and Rising” album makes an appearance - there’s something I really love about Erykah when she gives props to old school hip-hop. Oh, and what about the shout out to her ex-boyfriend (and baby daddy) Andre 3000 when she includes the video for “Hey Ya”!

I can’t give all the genius credit to Badu-ism here - director Chris Robinson did a spectacular job and his back catalogue is nothing to sniff at either, with videos by Nas, Alicia Keys and T.I. as well as the feature-length film ATL.

So, to rehash what I said earlier, watch the video. It warms the cockles of my heart to see R&B/Hip-Hop artists with lots of integrity and originality in a world full of ringtone rap.

Links:

Videography: Chris Robinson
Myspace: Erykah (how funny is it that her music style is listed as “Showtunes/Comedy”)
More Info: Full Inventory of Albums Featured In The Video

Posted on Friday, February 22nd, 2008 at 3:17 pm by Kat and is filed under Music & Videos.

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