Talk:Mama's Gun

The Washington Post review
Transcription using Google News Advanced News Archive Search. The Washington Post (Klein, Joshua. C.05. December 6, 2000) review of Mama's Gun (2000):

"As hip-hop grew in popularity over the past two decades, many believed the classic soul music of the '60s and '70s would be buried by tradition-flouting new jacks interested more in making big bucks than in making songs that stand the test of time. But a fresh generation of neo-traditionalists arrived to shift the focus from cookie-cutter marketing and youth-culture pandering back to musicianship and songwriting. Artists such as Tony Toni Tone, Lauryn Hill, D'Angelo and Erykah Badu didn't simply hark back to the days of such standard bearers as Sly Stone, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye and Roberta Flack. Rather, they fused the past with the present, making dusty soul sounds new again with a mixture of old-school grit and streetwise savvy.

Badu has spent the better part of the three years since her auspicious debut, "Baduizm," popping up here and there on a friend's album but otherwise relatively silent. The new "Mama's Gun" should have been a blazing return to the scene. Instead, while the disc shows the singer ever mindful of the need for moderation in this age of "bling-bling" excess, the music is never quite as potent as it could have been. After the energetic "Penitentiary Philosophy," "Mama's Gun" comfortably settles into quiet-storm mode, the subdued groove ruling all. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. D'Angelo's "Voodoo," for instance, similarly invited the listener to succumb to its stoned sonic utopia, and for better or worse "Mama's Gun" sounds like that album's soul sister. "Kiss Me on My Neck" drums up some impressive voodoo magic of its own, while "Bag Lady" works surprisingly well, considering its odd jazz/reggae/march structure. "Bag Lady" and "Orange Moon" also enlist some effectively enigmatic metaphors, the latter conjuring evocative images to match the empowering lyrics, with Badu quietly declaring, "He rules the day, I'll rule the night."

After the hypnotic haze is lifted, though, the songs often disappear into the ether as well, despite some assured performances. On that end, Badu's team never falters. Recorded (as was "Baduizm") with the help of members of Philadelphia's ambitious hip- hop collective the Roots, "Mama's Gun" slinks, swings and swaggers, in love with its own backroom cool. Roots drummer Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson and famed horn man Roy Hargrove are both potent collaborators who have also worked with D'Angelo and rapper Common, helping the disc to hover somewhere between jazz, R&B and hip-hop. Throughout, the sparse bass of guests such as fellow D'Angelo vet Pino Palladino thumps mightily, capably carrying the bulk of the minimalist melodies of ". . . & On" and "Didn't Cha Know.""

- Joshua Klein

Dan56 (talk) 23:43, 30 October 2009 (UTC)

Boston Herald review
Transcription using Google News Advanced News Archive Search. Boston Herald (Rodman, Sarah. 061. December 17, 2000) review of Mama's Gun (2000):

"ERYKAH BADU. Mama's Gun (Motown). Three and a half stars. Three years after turning the world on to the smooth soul tenets of "Baduizm," Texas songstress Erykah Badu returns packing "Mama's Gun." That "Gun" is loaded with even more dynamic tunes, proving her debut was no fluke. It starts with a shot, the big, Rufus-worthy explosion of "Penitentiary Philosophy." The scratch guitar and bass rumble are just a hint of what's to come. From there, it's all the joy, pain, sunshine and rain of Badu's life story laid out in lively r & b grooves padded with jazzy piano riffs, ethereal flute and funky scat singing. "AD 2000" recalls Minnie Riperton, with its sparse acoustic guitar and willowy vocal. Stephen Marley proves a gruffly romantic sparring partner on "In Love With You" and Roy Ayers and Roy Hargrove contribute fizzy vibes and frothy trumpet sounds to "Cleva" and "Booty" respectively. Although Badu goes on a little too long, the music is enough to make even the staunchest NRA opponent want to pick up this "Gun.""

- Sarah Rodman

Dan56 (talk) 23:51, 30 October 2009 (UTC)

Orphaned references in Mama's Gun
I check pages listed in Category:Pages with incorrect ref formatting to try to fix reference errors. One of the things I do is look for content for orphaned references in wikilinked articles. I have found content for some of Mama's Gun's orphans, the problem is that I found more than one version. I can't determine which (if any) is correct for this article, so I am asking for a sentient editor to look it over and copy the correct ref content into this article.

Reference named "ReferenceA": From Baduizm:  From Jazz fusion: Available online at:  From Jazz: Manuel, Peter (2009: 69). Creolizing Contradance in the Caribbean. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. From Billie Holiday: Lady Sings the Blues, p. 95. 

I apologize if any of the above are effectively identical; I am just a simple computer program, so I can't determine whether minor differences are significant or not. AnomieBOT ⚡ 14:17, 18 September 2014 (UTC)

External links modified
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