Erykah Badu – Other Side of the Game

An incredible track from Erykah’s 1997 Baduizm album. Otherside of the Game was written by Badu, Questlove, James Poyser and Richard Nichols. Wikipedia describes it as “effectively showcases Badu’s debt to jazz as well as soul”, which I can’t disagree with. I’m going to look at each of the three sections in the song one by one.

Intro/Bridge

The intro material is eight bars long and is repeated later in the song as a middle eight/bridge. It’s harmonically ambiguous, suggesting Ab/G# minor with the move from i to bIII and using the Bbm9/Eb like a V chord, but the Abmaj7 foreshadows the chorus.

There are two prominent techniques here that is seen a lot in neo soul; non-diatonic major seventh and slash chords. You can see both chordal devices used in Jill Scott’s Long Walk too. Major sevenths sound lush to modern ears, and while we would struggle to link the Bmaj7 and Abmaj7 using traditional harmonic paradigms, it’s part of the sound of modern soul music. We can see similar parallel major sevenths in Inner Life’s Ain’t No Mountain High Enough (Larry Levan mix).

Slash chords are chord notation devices used to easily explain how a pianist or guitarist should play a chord, we can see two examples in this: Abm7/Gb (a minor seventh chord with the minor seventh in the bass) and Bbm9/Eb (a minor chord with the fourth in the bass). Both voicings exude plenty of nods towards 60s and 70s modal and cool jazz. In-fact the Bbm9/Eb is close to a voicing used in Herbie Hancock’s Maiden Voyage. You can read more about slash chords and their usage in this Get Down Saturday Night deconstruction. I hear the intro like Abm7/Gb and Bbm9/Eb, Ab minor being the parallel minor of Ab major. The Bmja7 and Abmaj7 chords acting as passing chords.

*On the second repetition the Bbm9/Eb hangs, reinforcing it as V chord*.

*The colours are used to differentiate chord voicings, not indicate velocity*

Chorus

The chorus has a very pentatonic sounding melody, supporting the Ab major key centre. The first bar flops between the Dbmaj9 and an Abmaj9, richly voiced block chord voicings containing the major seventh and ninth on top of a major triad. The second two chords are interesting, the Emaj7 is non-diatonic in Ab major. Some people might call this a chromatic mediant, which I’ve always though sounds overly dramatic. Looking at the inner voices, the G moves to a G#, the Bb and C to the B natural and the Eb is the same as D#.

The G+maj7/A is an interesting chord voicing; previously I’d though of this like an Eb+(#9) chord with an A in the bass. Eb augmented is the same as G and D# augmented, so it’s how you hear the F# (major seventh of G, sharp ninth of Eb or minor third of D#). The A in the bass moves up a major third to the Db when the cycle completes. I’ve written about this chord and it’s occurrence in John Coltrane’s Naima.

The Emaj7 to G+maj7/A voicings also make up the lion’s share of another Badu song – Time’s a Wastin’. Vamping on those two chords gives you most of the chorus and verse.

The other part of Time’s a Wastin’ interpolates this Johnny Hammond song:

Verse

The verse uses two major seventh chords (Ab and E). Again these are not connected functionally but are non-diatonic thirds, as we saw in the intro and chorus. The bass walks down and up chromatically to join the chords.