Mama's Gun

Mama’s Gun, released in 2000, is Erykah Badu's second studio album and a key record in the neo soul movement. It combines jazz-inflected harmonies, downtempo grooves and hip hop rhythms with warm, live instrumentation and intimate, spacious production. Badu's expressive, conversational vocals and candid, personal lyrics give the album a raw, soulful feel, while the arrangements emphasize organic textures and rhythmic subtlety. The result is a deepening of the fusion between jazz, contemporary R&B and hip hop that marked late 1990s and early 2000s soul.