The most soulful (in every sense of the word) tunes occur under the watch of L.A. trio Shafiq Husayn, Taz Arnold and Om'Mas Keith, who produce five of Amerykah's tracks. On the confessional "Me," she lays it all out in black-and-white (and gives a shoutout to Louis Farrakhan) while Roy Hargrove's mellow horns and Jef Lee Johnson's jazzy guitar circle around her. Johnson does guitar duty again, along with the Mars Volta's Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, on the dense inner-city blues of "Twinkle." They aid in funking up the urban-decay consciousness of "The Cell." On "Master Teacher" they have her team with fellow boho babe Georgia Anne Muldrow to ponder, "What if there were no niggas, only master teachers?" (I ask this question nearly every day.) Finally, on "The Hump," they give her a lot of bop and bass so she can talk about the needle and the damage done.

Last but not least [Badu] gets with longtime pals/collaborators/Soulquarian brethren Poyser and [Thompson] for "Telephone," also known as Badu's in-memory-of-Dilla track. Inspired by a story the late hip-hop producer's mom told Badu the day of his "transition," the song's sparseness and poignancy ("Just fly away to heaven brother/ Make a place for me brother") makes it the album's standout track. As always, it takes a couple of boys from Philly to bring out the best in Amerykah.

Musical recordings