We’ve been on an album art kick here in TRU Nation ever since Brent Rollins schooled us on the art of the cover art. Erykah Badu is here to bless us with the encore performance. Badu has a history of remarkable album covers and her latest, New Amerykah Part Two, is no exception. Pop the lid to see Badu’s new artwork and the inspiration behind it.
The cover art for New Amerykah Part Two: Return of the Ankh is a collaboration between Erykah Badu and famed artist and poster designer EMEK, who also designed the inspired packaging for 2008’s New Amerykah Part One: 4th World War.
The new cover depicts an underwater image of Badu wearing a suit of armor that symbolizes the tough exterior she developed to protect herself from the harsh realities of life. The armor is her old shell and now she’s liberating herself from it by climbing out of her own head so that she can be reborn.
Her tuning fork is summoning the vibrations of the universe and the purple-colored tree of life and purple sky represent the 7th Chakra—the Crown Chakra right above her third eye shield, which represents peace, wisdom, and spirituality. The numerical theme of three is symbolized by three moons, three hidden babies, three trees, and three ankhs. Closer inspection reveals that Badu’s shoulders are surrounded by many of the same objects that filled her abstract afro on the cover of New Amerykah Part One, including handcuffs, a foreclosed home, fast food, cigarettes, broken chains, and a military tank. Here, those items represent refuse and rubble from which new life grows into a vibrant garden of colorful flowers blossoming all around her.
Badu continues the tradition of tapping into her emotional side and romantic relationships. “With Part One, I was standing at an apex, looking at what was going on around me politically, socially, and economically,” she explains. “With Part Two, I’m hovering over me, looking at what’s going on inside of me.”
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