To hell with being deliberately woke, Erykah Badu would be the first to advise against sheep walking. The inherent beauty of her idiomatic vernacular is that it exists only in the moment. Inherently, the idea of Erykah Badu suiting up for NPR's Tiny Desk is conceivably what the series had in mind when it debuted as a contest. Then again, Erykah Badu whole career has been permeated by acoustic learning. Hence why her Tiny Desk concert may be the least deconstructed of them all. But you can't call it cheating unless you strip her of her factory settings. Not going to happen.
Erykah performed a smoky rendition of "Rimshot" off Baduism and "Green Eyes" off Mama's Gun, the first two releases in her celebrated discography. Those two album arguably represent her ceiling as a recording artist, but on a personal level Badu has shown no sign of regressing. After performing both numbers, Badu listed off her spiritual pseudonyms, a quirk very few can pull off earnestly.
Erykah was flanked by RC Williams on keys, Braylon Lacy on bass, Cleon Edwards on drums, Frank Moka on percussion, Kenneth Whalum on sax, Keyon Harrold on trumpet and Dwayne Kerr on flute, all members of her creative cloud.