Happy 50th Birthday Queen: An A–Z Guide To All Things Erykah Badu

It’s the the third single from Baduizm.

This song was a chart-topper that earned Badu two Grammys.

According to this 2015 interview, it’s her favorite body part.

Badu received her certification in 2011. In 2015, she told Sway that she’d helped deliver 40 babies since becoming a doula.

The band’s perfect pitch and synchronized steps were only upstaged by memories of asking if our cousins could sleep over while “Reasons” blared from somebody’s borrowed speakers.

Badu has an amazing sense of humor. She’s crashed news broadcasts and busked in Times Square, singing “Give me some money,” which earned her four dollars.

Badu has four. Badu’s Baduizm earned her a Best Album win with the album’s single “On & On” picking up one for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance in 1998. She has a Grammy for “Love of My Life (And Ode to Hip Hop)” and earned another after teaming up with The Roots for “You Got Me.”

Badu attended Grambling State University before pursuing music.

That song was later changed to “I Love Jesus.” Badu’s mom told Okayplayer that the singer used to write and record songs at her Ganny’s—what she called her paternal grandmother—on a piano. “They recorded a song called…what was the name of it? Some boyfriend song about love, ‘I love my boyfriend.’ I love something…and the grandmother didn’t approve of that ‘cause she was a church lady. They had to change the lyrics to ‘I love Jesus.'”

Badu formed the Sugar Water Festival with these two singers. Started in 2005, the festival was designed to bring awareness to health issues African-American women faced.

She’s Badu’s mother and she’s also the muse behind “Ms. Jackson.”

Of course we sing this song every time we hear it.

Mars is her superfly mini-me and her daughter with rapper Jay Electronica.

And you already know Badu is the queen.

We play that song on repeat.

Badu’s 15-year-old daughter is just as talented as her mom. Have you heard her vocals?!

It’s well known that The Roots drummer is her Soulquarian friend.

She’s dated very cool ones—Andre 3000, Common, The D.O.C., and Jay Electronica—there are even jokes about the effect she has on them, but the singer says she’s learned a lot from them too. “I learned just as much from them as they learned from me. I’m a cold motherf–ka though. But the people I’m with are cold too. They’re a reflection of that. Become a cold motherf–ka and the motherf–ka will just come like magnets.”

Her first child, and son with Andre 3000, makes his mom proud every day.

The 1997 hit is an iconic gem.

Because she’s one of a kind.

The singer has practiced a meat-free diet for more than two decades.

The video for the track caused quite a stir. She even had to pay a fine for stripping down in the video.

It’s short for crystals. (Get it?) Badu loves crystals, once telling a fan on social media that “Crystals hold the memory of this planet.” She also swears by crystal deodorant, telling The Breakfast Club: “You have to stroke underarms 100 times on each times. But then you don’t have to put no more on for three days. I swear to God, Jesus, and two more White people. I should have a seminar for that because it’s giving the rest of us “earthy” people a bad name. If you don’t know how to use your rock deodorant, do something different. It’s a crystal—it’s an actual crystal. It neutralizes the skin. It has to send a signal to the big brain so neurologically you can stop being musty.”

It’s a hit song she worked on with The Roots. It won her and the group a Grammy.

Badu find peace through meditation, yoga, and different exercises that help keep her focused and at peace