On Saturday, the new queen of soul Erykah Badu brings her "New Amerykah/Vortex Tour 2008" to Greensboro Coliseum, where she'll share the stage with The Roots. Badu spoke by phone recently about subjects including the tour, her brilliant new album "New Amerykah Part One (4th World War)" and recording with Durham producer 9th Wonder, who produced her single "Honey."

Q: You and The Roots are touring off really strong albums. What's it like between your two bands? Is there a healthy competition?

A: We're definitely in a healthy competition. It is more between myself and Ahmir ["Questlove" Thompson, The Roots' drummer] than the band. That's one of my best friends, and we thrive off of art and creativity for art's sake -- and, you know, kind of encourage one another.

Q: You have the second part of "New Amerykah" coming out this summer, right?

A: Yep, July 29.

Q: And there's a part three?

A: Well, not a third part of "New Amerykah." There's a third piece of music called "Lowdown Loretta Brown," which is a totally different animal. It was recorded around the same time, all of it -- just separated and categorized. I guess when I'm making an album, I don't want to make a compilation. I want to make a complete project, or a complete thought. And "New Amerykah Part One," all the songs I chose for that were those same kinds of feelings and thoughts. It was the state of America from the underdog's perspective -- not too many answers. In my opinion, it wasn't too philosophical. It was just a natural reaction to what I see going on in America today. Part two is more emotional, a more emotional side of me. It deals more with love and fun and relationships. "Lowdown Loretta Brown" is a period piece that I've been working on for a long time. It flirts with the period of the '20s through the '60s. Lowdown Loretta Brown is a character I created, an alter ego.

Q: What's 9th Wonder like to work with in the studio?

A: He is very "business." Outside, we text message, IM each other, talk and play and laugh. When we're in the same city, we take walks, get a cup of juice, and, you know, he's very down-to-earth. But when we're in the studio, he's very serious about it -- about his time, because his time is very valuable to him, because he has so much to do. He has a family. He tries to get as much done as he can. I admire him a lot. He's very professional.

Q: Are there any new artists that you really like?

A: Janelle Monáe. She's featured on the Outkast album "Idlewild." She has her own solo project. She's pretty creative and theatrical in her approach to the music business, and she also has her own ideals and political opinions. And then there's also this chick named Kimya Dawson. You can hear Kimya's music in the "Juno" film. Kimya is totally free to me. I love it. I'm encouraged. She's totally inspiring to me. I've never met either of these people, but I'm a fan.

Danny Hooley

How Duran Duran is like James Bond

A few venues around here do movie/music combo bills -- a band plays followed by a screening of a thematically appropriate film. Cary's Booth Amphitheatre should do that for Wednesday's Duran Duran show, pairing the band with a James Bond flick, and not 1985's "A View To a Kill" (even though Duran Duran did that film's title song), but one of the 1960s-vintage Cold War classics starring Sean Connery.

Duran Duran, you see, is pop music's answer to James Bond -- British, stylish, slightly ridiculous and utterly committed to old-school roguish behavior. Substitute state-of-the-art-circa-1982 electronic instruments for Bond's Q-supplied gadgets, drop the whole mess into an exotic faraway place and, presto, you have Duran Duran's still-definitive videos for "Rio" and "Hungry Like the Wolf."

Those videos also riff on "Indiana Jones," "Apocalypse Now" and other movies. But the vibe is still pure Bond, with the band taking on the role of overdressed English dandies lookin' for love in subtropical places -- hopping islands on the trail of babes 'n' bombs, trying to catch the bad guys before they use the missing NATO nukes to blast Miami into that great gig in the sky.

Yeah, 1965's "Thunderball." That's what should close Wednesday's show.

Messages to grads

This is the time of year when pop culture folk put on their smart caps and try to inspire graduates. Some examples:

Bob Geldof, former Boomtowm Rat and Live Aid founder, at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn. on:

"Be unreasonable. Demand stuff of the world and if they don't do it, then change the world to suit the demands."

Star Jones, former "View" host and BFF of Barbara Walters, Lane College, Jackson, Tenn., on degrees:

"You will be able to pull it out like a passbook. Your education gives you power."

Chuck Norris, "Walker Texas Ranger" Liberty University, Lynchburg, Va., on God:

"I hope that you'll let him direct your steps because if you do, you can't go wrong."

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