the binomial capable of characterizing at best, the qualities of a fresh interpreter of the American musical scene of the last years of this millennium. Erykah Badu, born in Dallas Texas 26 years ago, under the sign of Pisces.

One then begins observing her body - black, statuary - and the first impression that one gets is, of an untamable force. It's almost as if young Erykah Badu had decided to condense in it all the centuries of suffering and torment ( but also of proud wars, of never crushed rebellions, of strong liberty claims "black is beautiful") lived by her people. Her face - of rare beauty and rare intensity - emphasizes this visual intuition. Only because, as the great natural actress as she is, Miss Badu, loves framing her face with a traditional African turban at least, a few inches high, like a Queen Nephertity of the year 2000.

But the real surprise is when, we venture inside that precious box of hidden treasures: descending to probe the unreachable depths of the soul. Here, is where we first run into her voice. Bitter but sweet at the same time, very versatile, a voice that many American critics have promptly compared to that of Diana Ross, and others, even to that of Lady Day: the unreachable Billie Holiday. In any case, a voice where passion moves step by step with freedom and the restlessness for predetermined schemes, with the yearning for a fantastic research. Like Erykah says, almost as if it were the most natural thing in earth " these are the dictates of my life: never have barriers, rules nor roles, and face all obstacles, which appear in front of me, overcoming them or perhaps demolishing them. Always with the help of the Lord."

Enunciation doesn’t represent a complete novelty. Everybody knows, in deed, that African - American "soul singers", even the ones apparently more "lay", from James Brown to Wilson Pickett, always considered themselves like messengers of a superior will. But, in Erykah’s case, the approach has been profoundly different. Her first record - "Baduizm", just released by Universal - is full of images, slightly esoteric: white burning candles, Egyptian rings, a violet Ankh cross (covering half of all the cover). Also when she sings about apparently plain things, for example in "On and On", she never forgets to bring her version of everyday life to a more vast conception: macrocosmic, we’d dare to say. "Everybody asks me what does 'three dollars and six dimes', I talk about in my song mean? The answer is very simple", she says. "In cents, that sum is equal to 360. Just like the 360 degrees of the circumference, of the astrological birth theme and of the totality of human existence."

This profound awareness of the perfect identity between "small" and "big", is precisely what allows this young black Texan to feel an integral part of the entire history of her people. "When I was little, I used to listen to Marvin Gaye and Chaka Khan, Stevie Wonder and Diana Ross, Smokey Robinson and Patti LaBelle", she declares. " And I perfectly know that my inspiration comes directly from the thousands of millions of microscopic atoms of memory that my favorite singers instilled in me. Just like I know that music is a process of continuos rebirth, that has to do with the soul and with breathing. Indeed, they are the architects which allow you to build an harmonic construction built on "empty space", that each one of us has available."

Fantastic. This is so true that, now, the "architects" which Miss Badu is talking about, give life to a little masterpiece of contemporary soul. It's the "nu soul", as the staff calls it, where feelings play hide and seek with ecstasy, pain plays with joy, memories of the past with future hunches, archaic feminism with the recent one, earth with the sky, and the body with the soul. Precisely.