Erykah Badu to Release New Music Independently on Her Own Label Control FREAQ Records

Erykah Badu has announced that she’ll be dropping music later this summer on her own record label, Control FREAQ Records.

Having been with Motown since at least 2007, this newly independent venture is a huge deal for Badu. The neo-soul pioneer established Control FREAQ Records in 2005, representing her “desire to foster creativity and innovation in the music industry,” according to a press release.

Erykah Badu hasn’t dropped new music since her 2015 mixtape But You Can’t Use My Phone, and while there’s no confirmed date for Badu’s return, she previously told Billboard her next album would be entirely produced by The Alchemist. She also spoke about the birth of Control FREAQ back in 2005, saying it was built as a “profitable home for artists, with fair contracts that will return ownership of the music to the artists after a period of time.” The label’s first signee was Jay Electronica, the father of Badu’s third child.

“I didn’t develop him at all. I just wanted to be near his greatness,” Badu told Billboard. “He needed to be heard and I had a platform. I wasn’t interested in building an artist from scratch. I was interested in artists who were building their own platforms.”

The crooner said in a press release that she’d return with her new music sometime this summer, though no specific date is listed. The album would be Badu’s first official album in 15 years.

“I tour eight months out of the year for the past 25 years,” she told Billboard of the delay. “That’s what I do. I am a performance artist. I am not a recording artist. I come from the theater. It’s the immediate reaction between you and the audience and the immediate feeling. The point where you become one living, breathing organism with people. That’s what I live for. It’s my therapy. And theirs, too. We’re in it together. And I like the idea that it happens only once.”