This is Part I of a two part pancocojams series on afro picks.
Part I showcases Erykah Badu's song "Pick Yo Afro Daddy". This song is also known as "Pick Yo Afro Daddy" and "Afro (Freestyle Skit)" is track 7 in Badu's the 1997 album Baduizm.
Part I also provides information about the Baduizm album.
The Addendum to this post includes a definition of "afro picks" and my comments about what afro picks and how afro picks were used and are now used. The Addendum also includes two related videos about Black hairstyles.
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2018/11/excerpts-from-various-online-articles.html for Part II of this series. Part II provides excerpts from various online articles & discussion threads about afros and afro picks (pics).
The content of this post is provided for cultural and entertainment purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to Erykah Badu for her musical legacy. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publishers of these videos on YouTube.
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SHOWCASE VIDEOS
Example #1: Afro Freestyle
AryKayne, Published on Nov 24, 2012
Track 7 from Baduizm album (Afro Freestyle Skit)
Song: Afro (Freestyle Skit)
Artist: Erykah Badu
-snip-
According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baduizm, "Baduizm is the debut album by American singer and songwriter Erykah Badu, released on February 11, 1997 by Kedar Records.
[...]
Baduizm was met with positive reviews from music critics who praised the album's musical style and Badu's artistic vision; other critics noted similarities between Badu and Billie Holiday. Baduizm was a commercial success debuting at number two on the US Billboard charts and number one on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. The album was certified three times platinum by Recording Industry Association of America,[5] Gold by British Phonographic Industry[6] and Gold by the Canadian Recording Industry Association.[7]
[...]
Badu's particular style of singing drew many comparisons to Billie Holiday.[24] Entertainment Weekly said Badu echoed Holiday in "her phrasing and cadence,"[14] while Greg Kot from the Chicago Tribune commented: "Rather than merely mimicking Holiday, Badu offers a canny update of the socially conscious soul of the early '70s with her midtempo grooves and sultry, conversational vocals."[13] In the Los Angeles Times, Robert Hilburn wrote: "Freely mixing musical eras and inspirations (Billie Holiday to Stevie Wonder, jazz to hip-hop), Badu combines supper-club sophistication with an artistic vision as unique and independent" as Prince in the 1980s.[25] Writing for Rolling Stone, Miles Marshall Lewis stated: "Baduizm showcases the heart and soul of a bohemian B-girl who happens to have an effortless jazz swing."[19]
At the end of 1997, Baduizm was voted the seventh best record of the year in the Pazz & Jop, an annual poll of American critics published by The Village Voice.[26]...
After Baduizm was released, it peaked at number two on the Billboard 200 and number one on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums.[29][30] The album's success helped establish Badu as one of the leading artists in the burgeoning neo soul genre.[2] Baduizm was certified three times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, Gold by the British Phonographic Industry and the Canadian Recording Industry Association. [5] [6] [7]
As of February 2017 the album has sold 2.8 million copies in United States."...
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Example #2:Erykah Badu - Pick Yo Afro Daddy & Jesus On The Main Line LIVE in Chicago March 28th 2013
Kreis Xian, Published on Mar 30, 2013
Erykah Badu performs " Pick Yo Afro Daddy & Jesus On The Main Line " LIVE at House of Blues Chicago in celebration of her 16th anniversary in the music business.
-snip-
Bady's "Jesus [Is] On The Main Line" is a largely non-religious rendition of that song.
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/06/rev-timothy-flemming-jesus-is-on.html for a pancocojams post about the Gospel song "Jesus Is On The Main Line".
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LYRICS: PICK YOUR AFRO, DADDY
Afro (Freestyle Skit)
(Erykah Badu, James Poyser, Jaífar Barron)
Excuse us, Ladies and Gentleman..1, 2..
You need to pick yo afro, daddy
Cuz it's flat on one side
You need to pick yo afro, daddy
Cuz it's flat on one side
What ya waiting for
Well, if you don't pick yo afro
You're gonna have one side high
Well, you said you was gonna take me to see Wu-Tang, baby
So I braided my hair
Well, yes you did
Well, you said you was gonna take me to see Wu-Tang, baby
So I braided my hair, yes I did
Cornrowed and everything, baby
Well, you changed your mind and said we wasn't goin'
But my momma saw you there, yes she did
Check this out, one time
Well, I be blowin' up your pager, daddy
But you never call me back
Well, I be puttin' in 9-1-1, baby
But you never call me back no no
See if you don't know how to use that pager, daddy
I'm gonna take that ho back
Yes I will- you know I'll do it
Source: https://genius.com/Erykah-badu-afro-freestyle-skit-lyrics
Comment on that page by Maira, 2015
"Badu wrote this, as dedicated to ?uestlove of the Roots."
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ADDENDUM: WHAT IS AN "AFRO PICK?" AND WHAT DOES "PICKING YOUR HAIR" MEAN IN THE CONTEXT OF BLACK HAIR CARE & THE AFRO AND OTHER BLACK NATURAL HAIRSTYLES? [Revised November 26, 2018]
An "afro pick" is a type of wide tooth hair comb. "Afro" ('fros) usually refer to evenly cut, rounded (halo shaped) big or small natural (non-chemically treated or non-hot comb straightened) hair styles for Black people with tightly coiled hair.
Afro picks can be made entirely of wood or plastic and may also be found as metal "teeth" with a wooden handle. In the context of Black people's hair care "to pick" means "to comb". Because of their wide teeth (prongs) afro picks help detangle tightly curled hair and make it easier to comb. Afro picks also help achieve and maintain afros that have volume and are evenly shaped.
Among Black Americans, "afro picks" may be more colloquially known as "pics" or "picks".
Afros are certain types of natural hairstyles that are worn (mostly) by Black people with tightly curled natural hair (i.e.type 4 hair that isn't treated with chemicals or hot combed.) Click https://www.naturallycurly.com/hair-types/coily for information about and photos of 4a, 4b, and 4C hair).
Afro picks are sometimes placed in the front side of (usually) Black males to facilitate carrying that comb. Much less often, afro picks are (also) worn in the hair on usually informal occasions for ornamental fashion purposes. However, the custom of having an afro pic in one's hair is much less often found in the 2000s than it was in the 1970s -in spite of the increased attention that musician Questlove of the Roots band has given to this custom as a result of the Roots being the house band for the Late Night With Jimmy Fallon series since February 2014.
It should be noted that the uneven style of ?uestlove's (Questlove)'s afro is very different from the evenly rounded (halo) style of big or small afros that were worn in the 1970s.
African Americans who wore our hair in afros, picked our hair for one of these or both of these reasons:
1. to help detangle the tightly curled natural hair
2. to achieve and help maintain a full, evenly rounded afro style
Afros a('fros) are natural hairstyles for (mostly) Black people with 4a, 4b, and/or 4c hair (Note that it's not unusual for an individual to have moer than one type of hair texture. In the late 1960s through the 1970s, afros were round, halo, evenly styled hairstyles, and the bigger (fuller) the afro was the better it was considered to be. However, that afro style became less favored in the 1980s although they can still be found among a small number of Black males and Black females. And in contrast to the 2000s, teeny tiny afros ("twas"- closely cropped natural hair, including shaved almost to the scalp were hardly found at all among Black American women.
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-changing-shape-of-womens-afro-hair.html for a pancocojams post entitled "The Changing Shapes Of Women's Afro Hair Styles (with January 2018 Update)"
Another way of achieving a fuller look with afros was (is) to braid or twist one's natural hair (at night before going to bed and then unbraiding or untwisting that hair (the next morning or longer*) before combing it with an afro pick or (more often nowadays) with another style of large tooth comb.
In Erykah Badu's "Pick Your Afro Daddy" freestyle song, Badu suggests that the man she is addressing (originally the drummer known as Questlove, who she informally and affectionately refers to as "Daddy", pick his afro hair in order to achieve an even look to that hair, i.e. one side is "flat" while the other side is higher.
In "Pick Your Afro, Daddy" Badu also refers to the custom (since the 1970s) of Black people braiding our natural hair and then taking out those braids and combing (picking) it in order to help make it easier to comb and wear in a 'fro.
Well, you said you was gonna take me to see Wu-Tang, baby
So I braided my hair, yes I did
Cornrowed and everything, baby"
In my opinion, Badu's reference to "cornrowed and everything" is artistic license. Generally speaking, cornrow hairstyles take much too long to do for people to take that hairstyle out the next morning or the next day after doing them.
It's important to note that way back in the 1970s-1990s, neither I nor any other Black female over the age of eighteen I knew would wear our natural hair out in public in braids or in cornrows, excerpt when those braids were worn with decorated with beads or with cowrie shell. Wearing hair in cornrows or braids were children's hairstyles which could be worn by men but were considered only maintenance hairstyles for women. (By maintenance, I mean that braiding or cornrowing helped keep naturally tightly curled hair from tangling and frizzing up). However, since the resurgence of the Black natural hair movement, particularly since the early 2000s- wearing one's hair in braids, cornrows, or "twist out" are considered much more socially acceptable and are even considered stylish by a number of Black women and others.
To be clear, it's usually incorrect to refer to most natural hair styles worn by Black Americans nowadays as "afros" ('fros).
Here's one example (out of numerous YouTube examples) of "twists outs" - one of many popular natural hairstyles that are now worn by Black women: twisting sections of the hair, leaving the twists in overnight, or for several days, then taking the twists out, and wearing your hair that way without picking out (combing out) the hair:
SUPER DEFINED TWIST OUT ON 4C NATURAL HAIR ft SALON PRO TWIN OLIVE GEL | Luchi Loyale
Luchi Loyale, Published on Jun 10, 2018
-snip-
In contrast, here's a 2013 video of a big afro:
Biggest Afro Hair In The World - Guinness World Record
Barcroft TV, Published on Aug 1, 2013
Biggest Afro Hair In The World - Guinness World Record
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This concludes Part I of this two part pancocojams series on afro picks.
Read the selected articles and comments about "afro picks" in Part II of this pancocojams series.
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