In honor of March being Women’s History Month, every “Catalog Catch Up” will be dedicated to the fairer sex. Maybe Badu’s classic number “Next Lifetime” was supposed to be the first March installment as it inspired these words. The song suddenly appeared as the first song on my iTunes shuffle a few days ago. 

Miss Erykah has been one of those artists to always hold some sort of infatuation over me (me over her, not her over me, of course). Like a close friend, I don’t have to hear her music every day, every week or every month for that matter. Yet, when I do, it’s as if we picked up from where our last interaction left off. “Next Lifetime” was a number which exposed its dopeness to me while in undergrad at Hampton University. This girl I knew used to smoke a lot weed and always played a combination of Badu and Outkast while she did the deed.

“Next Lifetime” just happened to always be in constant rotation. It fit the scene perfectly. Not because there was a subliminal message she was attempting to relay, but rather because the record was, simply, next-level great while under the influence of some sort of vice. The combination of the hypnotic instrumental coupled with Badu’s unique, legendary and mood-setting sultry voice was and still is enough to drive it over the top.

Visiting Hampton this past weekend for a wedding brought back those moments briefly of being young(er) with not much of a care in the world aside from not flunking out of school. Where ol’ girl is these days that put me on to the song, who knows? It’s not like I’m going to waste time searching either because it was one of those situations that was ran its course and ended on its own without either one of us having to acknowledge the outcome.

A thank you to her is in order, however, for exposing me to a song that knows no expiration date. This lifetime, the next lifetime or the one after that.