Singer Erykah Badu is starting her own record label so that artists can have a fair, profitable home for their musical talents to blossom.
“I want all my artists to be successful. It will happen,” said Badu at a Texas music festival last weekend. “They can be as famous or as underground as they want to be.”
Control FreaQ Records will be the home for Badu’s long awaited fourth studio album, which will be the follow-up to her 2003 Worldwide Underground. She will still deliver the album to Motown/Universal when it is finished. The first new artist signed to Control FreaQ is New Orleans based MC/lyricist Jay Electronica.
Badu still defends her commitment to family and community before her music career. “Life is more important than selling units for the label,” she says. However, she has taken time out to film House of D, actor David Duchovny’s (The X Files) feature writing/directing debut. The film opens in select U.S. theatres April 15.