It’s well after midnight and Erykah Badu is holed up in a small apartment that is part of Jimi Hendrix’s legendary Electric Ladyland studios. It’s the eve of Badu’s record-label-imposed deadline for her newest album, New Ameryka and she’s been working overtime since returning from a trip to Israel a few days before. The posters of Hendrix on the wall give one pause to contemplate what this place would be like if Jimi had lived to record and mentor others here.

The room feels like a tour bus. It’s dimly lit and an L-shaped couch serves as Erykah’s headquarters; a butter leather lily pad from whence, like a multi-limbed goddess, Badu commands her production center, her laptop never far. With deadlines looming, she’s not going out too much either (“My t-shirt’s about to walk off me,” she says). She says she’s …