She flourished at the arts magnet school, focusing on singing and dance. Erykah Badu was born on February 26, 1971 in Dallas, Texas, USA as Erica Abi Wright. Isn’t it better to stumble upon her outside of a head shop in a strip center off Garland Road? She toured throughout the next few years, on her "Frustrated Artist Tour," and in 2003 she released Worldwide Underground, a somewhat experimental album that featured some of hip-hop's finest. She moved back to Dallas, where she worked as a drama teacher and as a waitress while she recorded a demo. History & … 'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs'); Erykah Badu has shared a decades-old clip of her performing “On & On” at an open mic night in Brooklyn in 1995. "use strict";(function(){var insertion=document.getElementById("citation-access-date");var date=new Date().toLocaleDateString(undefined,{month:"long",day:"numeric",year:"numeric"});insertion.parentElement.replaceChild(document.createTextNode(date),insertion)})(); Subscribe to the Biography newsletter to receive stories about the people who shaped our world and the stories that shaped their lives. -->