Erykah Badu is widely considered to be one of the finest soul singers of her generation, with a discography of platinum selling classics aided by many of the greatest names in hip-hop history, from Questlove and The Roots to Russ Elevado, Dilla and Madlib.

In recent months she’s begun work on her latest album, partnered up with the likes of Flying Lotus and Jay Electronica, and even played a handful of DJ sets at the Miami Winter Music Conference and London’s East Village. Getting Erykah on the phone is no mean feat given her hectic schedule, so we were honoured to catch up with the first lady of neo-soul to chat about her appearance at the Red Bull Music Academy in Madrid this year, where she’ll be playing an exclusive live show and lecturing on her life’s work.

“The planet is going through an evolution, a labour, a pain, and it’s projecting its labour and its pain. I’m a midwife as well, you know.”

Thank you for taking time out to speak to us today, it’s really kind of you. I was wondering what you were planning on teaching students at the Academy this year?

“Oh, just… be honest.”

Is that your policy in life then?

“That’s it.”

I heard you’re DJing these days.

“No.”

But you were DJing at a club near me in London a few weeks ago?

“I have a couple of times, I’ve been on Gilles Peterson’s show a couple of times, djing too.”

What are you working on at the moment?

“At the moment, I’m working on an album on an album for myself, with rappers, with Tony Allen, we’ve just started it.”

Are you doing any music with your partner Jay Electronica?

“All the time. You never know what he’s gonna put out.”

I saw him tweeting that he’s been working on his album and you’ve been kindly looking after the kids in the meantime.

“I was in the studio with him last night.”

What about Flying Lotus, are you doing some stuff with him?

“Yep, we’re doing a project together. We’re trying to figure out where our worlds meet. We know we’re from the same tribe.”

What tribe is that?

“A tribe that works with no fear.”

Do you think fear is a problem in the world today? Is it a problem in America or the world in general.

“Yeah I do. The world in general. Human beings.”

If you could make the world a better place what would you do?

“Start by becoming a better person.”

When was the last time you were in Madrid?

“I was just there, I had a European tour, I just did it over there, maybe two months ago.”

What’s your favourite thing about the city?

“Passion, and romance, and the whimsical feeling, and the people, and the nostalgia, and the history, and the food, and the language. I love the language. Beautiful.”

“You want to create a feeling, you want to create a riot, you want to create a change, you want to create an evolution … That’s what art is for, to channel our feelings, reflect them off of others. That is what it’s all for. If it does that then I did what it was supposed to.”

I remember you saying when you wrote The New Amerykah and the New Amerykah Part II, they were mostly written on the tourbus.

“I write wherever I can, wherever it comes to me, because I don’t always have that channel open. And whenever it’s open, wherever I am is where I write.”

“Do you think that’s different to when you were working with Russ Elevado, in the big studios?”

“No, cause it’s the same thing, cause you don’t go to the big studio unless you got something to say. I don’t waste my money like that. [laughs]”

Makes sense, so the songs come first for you then?

“The concepts at least. The concepts come first. And then the music next. And then I find the vibe, the instruments, to take it to that place, to those concepts.”

Where do you think your inspiration really comes from?

“My life. What I see, what I hear. My experience. Because what music is for me is therapy. It’s part of being honest, because everyone wants to know who I am. Baduism, Live, Mama’s Gun, Worldwide Underground, New Amerykah Part I and II. That is who I am.”

Do you think it’s possible to be too honest sometimes? I don’t want to take you there if you don’t want to go there, but the ‘Window Seat’ video – some people there really didn’t understand that.

“Well, you know the purpose of art is to create dialogue. People create a dialogue about it and say how they feel.. You want to create a feeling, you want to create a riot, you want to create a change, you want to create an evolution, you want to create a movement, you want to create a distraction, or a disappointment, or disgruntlement. That’s what art is for, to channel our feelings, reflect them off of others. That is what it’s all for. If it does that then I did what it was supposed to.”

What’s the most beautiful thing in your life right now?

“Being able to be honest, in a guilt free environment.”

What do you listen to when you’re at home?

“Everything. I listen to blues, Coleman Hawkins, Howling Wolf, and jazz like Thelonius Monk.. The Meters! I love The Meters. Joni Mitchell, Pink Floyd…”

Is hip-hop as much a part of your life as it once was?

“It’s everything, these are billions of billions of atoms of all of those things that make me. I use those things to express my self through my music. And I don’t know what to call it when I do it. But I’m sure if you look for them you can find all of those elements, inside my music.”

What’s the greatest lesson you ever learned?

“Not to doubt myself.”

If you were in New York right now, would you be occupying Wall Street?

“I am in New York right now! I might.”

What do you make of what’s going on right now, with all these banks, all these systems around us, crashing to the ground?

“I think it reflection of where the world is, and where the planet is. The planet is going through an evolution, a labour, a pain, and it’s projecting its labour and its pain. I’m a midwife as well, you know. I see the world right now the way I see when I deliver. It’s painful but it’s very necessary, at the same time. The baby that is born is the whole objective of the struggle. I see the world recalibrating itself. We are witnessing evolution, in our lifetime right now, in every aspect of existence.”

Where did we go wrong, Erykah?

“I don’t know if there’s a right or wrong. I think there’s just a balance to all things. It’s happened many many times before on this planet, so it can’t be too long till it happens again.”

Speaking of balance, as a mother of three, how do you balance all the things in your life?

“I got a lot of help. And encouragement. I love my children. I have a lot of responsibility, I am the designated driver of my world. I stay focussed, and I stay awake.”

What’s the secret of your success?

“The same thing I keep saying to you. Be honest. Be fearless in your attempt to express who you are. Because it’s not a race, or a competition, it’s about being who you are in the moment. And sharing that.”

“To be fearless, to be honest”, is that what you teach your own children?

“Absolutely. I know they can learn arithmetic, and literature, black history, world history, and those things. But above all they should never be closed, the door of compassion should always be open. I always try to keep that door open, and I think that’s what keeps them growing as beings. We don’t have any rules in our house, it’s not do as I say.”

“I love the evolution of what’s happening. I love Rick Ross. I love Drake. I love Lil Wayne. I love Nicki Minaj. I love their interpretation of the craft. I think it’s ongoing.”

How much is Dilla still in your thoughts?

“I feel his influence all around me. The people in my life are friends and family members of his. He is unescapable. Dilla is here with me all the time.”

It’s interesting how much music has come forth in the years since he passed, that is influenced by him. What do you think he would make of that?

“I don’t know, because he didn’t really talk too much. He communicated through those beats. I don’t know.. We were very close, but there never was very much talking going on. We were chatting through sonic frequencies. I don’t think he saw himself as some great thing. He’s a scientist, constantly experimenting and testing his theories.”

Is there a producer in the game today that inspires you on a similar sort of level?

“There are no others, before him or after him. I will say this, people call him the messiah of beats. Well if he is the messiah of beats, then Pete Rock would have to be John the Baptist, because Pete Rock was the one that taught him a lot of things, took him under his wing, and taught him how to use the tools. He already had all of it inside of him, like Frodo in Lord Of The Rings. He didn’t know who he was, or why he was the way he was, he just was.”

Do you miss hip hop the way it was?

“Oh yeah, but I’m in love with hip-hop. Of course you know that rap is something you do, I listen to the rap of now, but Hip Hop is something you live. I’m a b-girl, into breakdancing, graffiti art. Hip-hop is the creation of an instrument, two turntables and a mixer. Hip Hop is the inflexions in the voice, everyone has their own style, especially when they are an attuned b-boy or b-girl. I love the evolution of what’s happening. I love Rick Ross. I love Drake. I love Lil Wayne. I love Nicki Minaj. I love their interpretation of the craft. I think it’s ongoing. I also think that in programming, and in music, the machine takes what it wants and sees the people. People can only see a limited amount of things. But because of social networking, hip-hop lives on. We get to experience the history, experience the present, and experience the future. Hip Hop is the people.”

What was the first hip-hop record you heard that changed your life?

“‘Apache’ by the Incredible Bongo Band. I heard it as a young girl, in the late 70s hip-hop was almost mainstream on radio already. It was becoming part of our culture. Our musical culture. Hip-hop was created out of necessity. I heard Apache, I thought wow, somebody is in the lab! I remember sitting in the bathroom, making beats on the wall, thinking wow they need a beat under this. When Mary J Blige came along, and changed hip-hop, she gave it another voice. The miracle voice, the melodic voice. I remember in 1989 when we turned in our fat gold chains for those black leather medallions, it gave it political power. It’s the voice of the people”

It’s interesting cause I was watching a Jazzy Jay interview last night, and he said, I know the Democratic party, I know the Republican party, but what about the Hip-hop party?

“Well Hip-hop is bigger than them. I got a song called ‘The Healer’, in which I say hip-hop is bigger than religion, is bigger than the government. Because I travel all over the planet, and everyone has different political views. And everyone’s religious beliefs are different. And they all bow to different gods or different political parties. But everyone nods their head in syncopation to the kick and the snare.”

‘The Healer’ was produced by Madlib right? How did that come about.

“In 2004, Questlove and Jay Electronica introduced me to iChat. And I was sitting at home, I didn’t really want to go anywhere, I just wanted to be introspective. And they said well fine, we’ll just send you MP3s. I got sent MP3s of Madlib, 9th Wonder, Questlove, Jay Electronica, and I was sitting at home using garage band, and I just started to track vocals over these tracks. I just saw it as another outlet for myself, to create anywhere around the world, at any time. I created 100 songs in a couple of months. Actually every time I tell this story the number gets bigger [laughs]. I created 268 tracks in one month, it was just so much stuff.

“And that’s how that came about. When Madlib makes beats he just saves it to a CD on his drive, and you’ll never hear it again, so you have to get hold of the CD! And he don’t know where the sample came from.. We had to do so much research, he just didn’t know, he was just creating! Similarly the song ‘Love’, off the New Amerykah Part II that Dilla created, came off a cassette tape. We had to do so much research trying to figure out where this stuff came from. When I connect to those tracks and those songs, it’s like connecting to something that Beethoven or Bach had made, because the layering, the creativity is so astonishing to me. It’s a natural thing, the way the dj relates to the singer.

“I gravitate towards Madlib, he’s a cratedigger and a historian like myself, like Questlove, like Pete Rock, like Premier, like all these people that I love so much. Another part of myself I was able to share through the beauty of technology.”

So go on, give us an exclusive, what’s the new album called?

“No idea. That’s the thing that comes last.”

Mr. Beatnick