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See photos of Erykah Badu and The Roots live on stage at Radio City Music Hall:

    

She grew up listening to '70s soul and '80s hip-hop, but Erykah Badu drew more comparisons to Billie Holiday upon her breakout in 1997, after the release of her first album, Baduizm. The grooves and production on the album are bass-heavy R&B, but Badu's langurous, occasionally tortured vocals and delicate phrasing immediately removed her from the legion of cookie-cutter female R&B singers. A singer/songwriter responsible for all but one of the songs on Baduizm, she found a number 12 hit with her first single "On & On," which pushed the album to number two on the charts.

In 2000 Badu returned with her highly anticipated second studio album, Mama's Gun, which she co-produced, and contained the hit single "Bag Lady." Worldwide Underground, a loose affair billed as an EP despite being longer than many full-lengths, was released in 2003. Her next step, 2008's New AmErykah, Pt. 1: 4th World War, initiated a series of planned releases across the following year.