She’s always surrounded by family, so it’s often hard to tell where the personal life of versatile recording artist Erykah Badu ends and her professional life begins. Her sophisticated singing style, with R&B as well as jazz influences, has earned her the title “Queen of Neo Soul” and drawn comparisons to the great Billie Holiday. But Erykah herself is far more modest. “My notes are never perfect,” says the 39-year-old mother of three who grew up in Dallas. “My singing is more tribal moans and primal wails. It comes from a place that only God knows, where only God goes, and I’m just grateful that people relate to it. They feel it; they feel that place.” Though she’s known primarily as a recording artist, record producer, actress and sometime provocateur, Erykah is also a loving mom who keeps her loved ones close to her at all times, even on the road. She travels about seven months each year, with several family members in tow. Her uncle is her road manager, while her mother is her “chief of protocol” and also helps care for her three kids. Often traveling with her are son Seven Sirius and daughters Puma Sabti and Mars Merkab, whom Erykah home-schools herself while on tour. Her brother handles her merchandising, while her sister sings backup, and it’s Erykah’s beloved grandmother who is charged with press coverage duty. “She keeps all the important news clippings,” Erykah says. “My grandmother tells me the climate of each city I go into; she knows by what the papers are saying.” Fit and Focused Erykah keeps up her stamina as a performer by following a vegetarian diet, as she has for the past 20 years. She doesn’t do any specific exercises to keep her voice in shape but drinks tea when she performs. Her secret for high energy and regeneration? Lots of green vegetables, and she drinks wheatgrass and vegetable juice every day. She’s a holistic health practitioner and a third-degree Reiki Master. “In my spare time, I have consultations with people who want to find a new way to feed themselves energetically, spiritually and vitally,” she says. Although this spare time is rare, Erykah finds moments of “me time” whether she’s in a room full of people or alone in her bathtub. “My vacation is home,” she says. When she begins to feel stressed or tired while caring for her children, she shifts her way of thinking: “Instead of saying, ‘Oh, I’ve got to get up and fix breakfast,’ I think, ‘I get to get up and fix breakfast. I get to comb Puma’s hair.’ When you change how you see things, it changes the dynamics and gives you a boost of energy.” Shared Parenting This unique artist has created a nontraditional family. Erykah’s children all have different fathers, but they form a tight-knit group. Seven’s father is André Benjamin—known as Andre 3000 of Outkast—a popular hip-hop artist who’s also a hands-on dad. “He spends a lot of time with his son and is present for every program, every report, and has him in the summer,” she says proudly. “Seven is getting to an age where he needs his father more, and his father has made himself available. He’s like an encyclopedia for his son.” She describes Seven as a self-sufficient young man who is humble and compassionate. “He knows how to heal himself and cook for himself,” she says. “He makes very good decisions.” Erykah’s daughters also have committed fathers. Puma’s dad, rapper The D.O.C., lives in Dallas and picks her up from school, often spending the rest of the day with her, until she goes to sleep. Mars’s dad, rapper Jay Electronica, lives elsewhere but sees his daughter on video chat each day. “Even though she’s one, when she sees somebody walk off with a computer, she gets upset, because she thinks that’s her daddy,” says Erykah. When addressing the question of child custody, Erykah explains that she doesn’t use the courts to negotiate child-care arrangements. “They’re my friends, my supporters, my confidants,” she says of her children’s fathers. “We have a great team effort going on, and each of the fathers support one another’s children. This is a little tribe.” Reflecting on her past relationships, she sees lessons learned from each one: “Every opportunity I have to love and to share and to grow, I take very seriously.” Tweeting About Labor For Mars’s birth, Erykah used Twitter to alert her fans that she was in labor. “I was actually dared to do that by Questlove, the drummer of The Roots,” she says. Why did she take the challenge? “I had three babies in my bed with no anesthesia, so tweeting isn’t a big deal,” she insists. Opting for natural delivery, she didn’t take painkillers or other drugs during labor. Make no mistake about it: “It’s pain,” she says. “But it’s not the end of the world; it’s just pain. I’m totally present throughout the whole thing.” Not Playing It Safe Erykah made news recently—and raised some eyebrows—with her music video for “Window Seat,” a single from her latest album, New Amerykah Part Two: Return of the Ankh. The mixed reception didn’t bother her. This forward-thinking artist learned about being true to herself from her own mother, whom she describes as her biggest supporter. “She’s the person who told me that I was a winner, no matter what,” Erykah says. “The confidence that she instilled in me is why I’ve won the things that I’ve won.” Though her mother and father divorced when she was 3 years old, she credits her father’s absence as a motivator. “When I did things, I did them with the thought that he may see me,” she explains. Erykah also teaches her own children to be true to themselves, as well as responsible and considerate. “Whenever they see me or anyone else needing a hand, they ask if I need help,” she says, “or they just start helping.” Seeing the people her children are becoming fills her with pride. “A lot of people ask, ‘Do you need help?’ hoping that you’ll say no,” Erykah says. “My children ask hoping you’ll say yes.”