Live is a live concert album

Album

An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...

 by American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 R&B

Rhythm and blues

Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...

 singer Erykah Badu

Erykah Badu

Erica Abi Wright , better known by her stage name Erykah Badu , is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. Her work includes elements from R&B, hip hop and jazz. She is best known for her role in the rise of the neo soul sub-genre, and for her eccentric, cerebral musical...

, released in 1997 (see 1997 in music

1997 in music

This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1997.-January:*January 9 – David Bowie performs his 50th Birthday Bash concert at Madison Square Garden, New York City, USA with guests Frank Black, The Foo Fighters, Sonic Youth, Robert Smith of The Cure, Lou Reed, and Billy...

). Apparent throughout Live is the raw emotion that Badu shows when performing. An example of the emotion delivered in the album can be identified with the song Ye Yo where Badu, pregnant, can be heard crying while delivering a powerful performance dedicated to her son, Seven (although at the time of the recording, apparently the fetus' gender had yet to be determined because she refers to the baby in the feminine sense, seemingly assuming the gender would be female). Released in the fall of 1997, with her debut album Baduizm released earlier that year, Live quickly went double platinum with the radio hit Tyrone.

"Live" includes covers of Chaka Khan

Chaka Khan

Chaka Khan , frequently known as the Queen of Funk, is a 10-time Grammy Award winning American singer-songwriter who gained fame in the 1970s as the frontwoman and focal point of the funk band Rufus. While still a member of the group in 1978, Khan embarked on a successful solo career...

 ("Stay"), Roy Ayers

Roy Ayers

Roy Ayers is an American funk, soul, and jazz composer and vibraphone player. Ayers began his career as a post-bop jazz artist, releasing several albums with Atlantic Records, before his tenure at Polydor Records beginning in the 1970s, during which he helped pioneer jazz-funk .- Biography :Ayers...

 ("Searchin'") and a medley of Heatwave's

Heatwave (band)

Heatwave was an international funk/disco musical band featuring Americans Johnnie Wilder, Jr. and Keith Wilder of Dayton, Ohio, Englishman Rod Temperton , Swiss Mario Mantese , Czechoslovak Ernest "Bilbo" Berger , Jamaican Eric Johns and Briton Roy Carter .They were known for their successful...

 "Boogie Nights

Boogie Nights (song)

"Boogie Nights" is a 1976 single by the British-based funk-disco group Heatwave. It was the group's debut single and was written by Rod Temperton. It was included on Heatwave's debut album, Too Hot to Handle...

", The Mary Jane Girls'

Mary Jane Girls

The Mary Jane Girls were an American R&B, soul, funk and disco group in the 1980s. They were protégées of singer Rick James. They are known for their hit songs "All Night Long", "Candyman" and "In My House".-Formation:...

 "All Night Long", and Funkin' for Jamaica (N.Y.)

Funkin' for Jamaica (N.Y.)

"Funkin' for Jamaica " is a 1980 single by jazz trumpeter, Tom Browne. The single -- a memoir of the neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens where Browne was born and raised -- is from his second solo album, Love Approach. The vocals for the single were provided by Tonni Smith, who also...

 by Tom Browne.

The album was nominated for Best R&B Album at the 1999 Grammy Awards, while the track "Tyrone" was nominated for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance.

Track listing

1. "Rimshot (Intro)" (Erykah Badu, Madukwu Chinwah) - 3:48
2. "Other Side of the Game" (Badu, Bro.Questlove, Richard Nichols, James Poyser, The Roots) - 8:21
3. "On & On" (Badu, Jaborn Jamal) - 5:25
4. "Reprise" - 2:13
5. "Appletree" (Badu, Robert Bradford) - 2:54
6. "Ye Yo" (Badu) - 6:07
7. "Searching" (Roy Ayers) - 4:26
8. "Boogie Nights/All Night" (James A. Johnson, Rodney L. Temperton) - 6:03
9. "Certainly" (Badu, Chinwah) - 7:06
10. "Stay" (Richard Calhoun, Chaka Khan
    Chaka Khan
    Chaka Khan , frequently known as the Queen of Funk, is a 10-time Grammy Award winning American singer-songwriter who gained fame in the 1970s as the frontwoman and focal point of the funk band Rufus. While still a member of the group in 1978, Khan embarked on a successful solo career...
    
    ) - 4:58
11. "Next Lifetime (Interlude)" (Badu, Tone The Backbone [Anthony Scott]) - 1:30
12. "Tyrone" (Badu, Norman "Keys" Hurt) - 3:56
13. "Next Lifetime" (Badu, Tone the Backbone [Anthony Scott]) - 12:05
14. "Tyrone" [Extended Version] (Badu, Hurt) - 5:40

Charts

Chart (1997)	Peak position
US Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...	4
US Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a chart published by Billboard magazine that ranks R&B and hip hop albums based on sales compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The name of the chart was changed from Top R&B Albums in 1999...	1
US Billboard Top Country Albums	70

Personnel

• Erykah Badu - vocals
  Singing
  Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
  
  
• Charles "Poogie" Bell, Jr. - drums
  Drum kit
  A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
  
  
• Karen Bernod
  Karen Bernod
  Karen Bernod is an American born R&B vocalist, songwriter, and producer.Karen is best known for her unique vocal harmonies as a background singer for Chaka Khan, Erykah Badu, C&C Music Factory and D'Angelo.-Biography:...
  
   - background vocals
• Hubert Eaves IV - bass
  Bass guitar
  The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
  
  
• Norman "Keys" Hurt - keyboard
  Keyboard instrument
  A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
  
  
• N'Dambi
  N'dambi
  -Biography:N'dambi is the ninth of eleven children born to a Baptist minister and missionary. Her father was a minister and singer in a quartet group. She got her professional start singing with Gaye Arbuckle, a local gospel singer, touring with Arbuckle for two years...
  
  - background vocals
• Joyce M. Strong - background vocals

Production

• Producers: Erykah Badu, Norman "Keys" Hurt
• Executive producers: Erykah Badu, Kedar Massenburg
• Engineers: Erykah Badu, Norman "Keys" Hurt, Gorden Mack, Kenny Ortíz
• Mixing: Erykah Badu, Norman "Keys" Hurt, Gorden Mack, Kenny Ortíz
• Mastering: Tom Coyne
• Art direction: D. Simmons, M. Warlow
• Cover art concept: Erykah Badu, Clymenza Hawkins
• Design: P. Geczik, Lance Ong
• Layout design: P. Geczik
• Photography: Imari Dusauzay, Imari Dusauzay
• Artwork: P. Geczik, Lance Ong