Mama's Gun - Music

Music

The album opens with the explosive, psychedelic, guitar-lead "Penitentiary Philosophy", which features a sample of Stevie Wonder's "Ordinary Pain", heavy drumming from Questlove, and guitar by Jef Lee Johnson. The song is an expression of what Badu sees as a state of mental imprisonment. She urges disillusionment and liberation from false beliefs: "Here's my philosophy/Livin' in a penitentiary/Brothers all on the corner/Tryin' to make believe/Turn around ain't got no pot to pee". The song features a twice-repeated breakdown section where she almost whispers her lyrics, as the music slowly builds up and launches back into the main groove. The following song, the spiritual "Didn't Cha Know", features ethnic-sounding percussion, wah-wahs, and emotive strings. The song was produced by Jay Dee with contributions from James Poyser. Jay Dee had been working with Common on his album but was yet to meet Badu, so the rapper arranged for the two to meet. She relates the song's creation:

I went to Detroit to work with this cat that I heard a few tracks from that drove me crazy. Common took me over there, we went down to the basement, Common left and Dilla and I sat and talked. He had records wall to wall like it was a public library and he goes, “OK, I want you to look for a record.” I’m looking through these organized, tightly packed crates, and I just pulled out one record and the artist was Tarika Blue. I liked that name. I put on the first track and I fell in love with the song and I kept playing it over and over again and I said, “I want this.” He showed me how to loop a small part of the bassline, he was very generous in teaching you and letting you be hands on. Then I left the room and when I came back he had looped some drums to a small sample of the song and I started to write to it. I came up with the "Ooooh, heeeey" melody. I wrote for a few days and then the song came to be. I’d hike down to his house in mittens and a scarf. I just kind of stayed down there and worked until we got the things the way that I liked.

It was the second single and garnered some unwanted attention when the source of its sample, jazz fusion band Tarika Blue, filed a suit seeking compensation for its release as thus. The case was settled out of court. The song "...& On" is a continuation of her 1997 hit "On & On" and, like that song, sees Badu waxing cryptically yet again, although she conscientiously teases her own mystic image when she sings "What good do your words do if they can't understand you? Don't go talkin' that shit, Badu". After this song, the album jumps into "Cleva", which begins with the line "this is how I look without make-up". Badu uses the song to challenge accepted standards of female values when she asks "She's cleva and I really wanna grow, but why come you're the last to know?". The issue of self-esteem is further explored on two other songs; the funk-jam "Booty", and the jazzy album version of "Bag Lady". On the latter, Badu uses the titular "bag lady" as a metaphor for a woman who carries emotional baggage over from her previous relationships and is unable to let anyone get close to her. She stresses the importance of obtaining closure when she sings: "Bag lady, you gon' hurt your back/Draggin' all them bags like that/I guess nobody ever told you/All you must hold on to is you". The controversial 1999 shooting of Guinea immigrant Amadou Diallo by the NYPD's Street Crimes Unit served as the basis for "A.D. 2000" (the abbreviation standing for Diallo's initials). Rather than singing a condemnation of the NYPD, as had most other artists who were incensed by the event, Badu chose to sing an elegy which, while noting the tragedy of Diallo's killing, also observes the furor over the circumstances, which she viewed as likely to be temporary: "No you won't be name'n no buildings after me/To go down dilapidated ooh/No you won't be name'n no buildings after me/My name will be misstated, surely". The song recalls other symbolic protest songs such as "Strange Fruit" by Billie Holiday, an artist with whom Badu has received some favorable comparisons. Mama's Gun contains two back-to-back love songs; the dreamy, astronomical ballad "Orange Moon", and the acoustic, reggae-tinged "In Love With You" - a duet between Badu and Stephen Marley.

The last song, and arguable centerpiece of the album, "Green Eyes", is a sprawling, three-part epic exploring the contradicting emotions of a woman trying to cope with a breakup. The first part, titled "Movement 1 (denial)", features piano by James Poyser, trumpets by Roy Hargrove, and sounds akin to the effect of being heard through a 1930s gramophone record player. It sees Badu singing in a soft bluesy baritone comparable to Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald. In this section of the song, Badu denies feeling hurt when she finds out that her former lover has a new partner. She sings: "My eyes are green/Cause I eat a lot of vegetables/It don't have nothing to do with your new friend". The second movement, dubbed "acceptance", features bass guitar, flutes, and piano and is a lot jazzier, featuring brush-stroke drums by Questlove. In this section she sings: "I can't remember the last time I felt this way about somebody/You've done something to my mind/And I can't control it/But I don't love you any more/Yes I do, I think/Loving you is wrong". In the third section, she finally succumbs to her emotions and reveals at once, feelings of regret, abandonment, and unfulfilled promises, as well as a yearning to rekindle an affair which almost certainly consumed her, and which she has yet to move on from: "Don't you want be strong with me?/You told me we could have a family/Want to run to me when you're down and low/But times get tough and there you go/Out the door, you wanna run again/Open your arms and you'll come back in/Wanna run cause you say you're afraid". Because of her highly publicized involvement with André Benjamin, many assumed that she was referring to their break-up in the song and also on her song "Tyrone", however both parties have stated that there is no animosity between them and that they are on good terms, and speak regularly (it is worth noting that "Tyrone" was recorded in 1997, while the pair were still an item). Benjamin responded to the rumors in the song "A Life in the Day of Benjamin André (Incomplete)", from the 2003 Outkast album, Speakerboxxx/The Love Below.