Erykah Badu Talks New Mixtape, Mixes Thundercat, Deerhoof, Toro Y Moi, More on Beats 1

Photo by Trent Maxwell

Erykah Badu is preparing to release her new mixtape, But You Caint Use My Phone, tomorrow. Today, she chatted about it to Zane Lowe on his Beats 1 radio show, before sharing a half-hour mix called Beats & Lotus Petals. It features Thundercat, Deerhoof, Haitus Kaiyote, Bee Gees, Das EFX, Toro Y Moi, and more. Listen to the chat below, and head to Apple Music to hear the mix (starting 1:23:25).

Speaking about the origins of But You Caint Use My Phone, Badu said:

There’s this kid who’s kind of a prodigy in my city. He was responsible for bringing in the boogie movement, and they called him White Chocolate, because he grew up in an all-black neighborhood. His name’s Zac Witness. Zac did a remix of ‘On and On’ and handed it to me through social media. And I listened to it and I was like, ‘Woah, what is this?’ And when I thought about doing the ‘Hotline Bling’ remix I thought about him. And the same week, he came to one of my events in passing and we exchaanged phone numbers. And the next week we were in his bedroom studio, we did the whole project in 11 days. And this kid produced, reproduced some other thing, mixed, and mastered, he mastered the project in two days. I did vocals one take for each song. Amazing.

Asked what she loves about Drake, she added, “His evolution. His mutability. How he stays centered, and he knows what’s next before it comes. Like a weather man.”

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