The following joint is an exclusive excerpt from award winning writer Edward M. Garnes, Jr.’s long awaited collection Other Side of The Game: Rare Testimonials On Music & Black Cultural Production to be published by Home Grown in 2009. This was the first story ever written on Anthony David way back in 2000.

Baduizm was a regular niggas dream gettin’ me through finals, death threats, heartbreaks, suicidal ideation, and my parents (now divorced) rocky relationship. In many ways, “Other Side Of The Game” became my personal soundtrack (and still is) as a young man developing in a world where free spirits have hell to pay.

To be frank, Erykah Badu is further from the stereotype of project baby mamas than the Pluto is to Earth. The key difference is Badu ain’t runnin’ around lookin’ for the next man payin’ for nails and hair with a car to take her shoppin’. She has built sound relationships with some cool brothers and it didn’t work out the way we, on the outside, thought it should.