in its personal scope of Badu's psyche, calling it "a definite work of art, destined to remain in heavy rotation for some time to come". Although most reviews were favorable, Mama's Gun was not as successful with consumers and critics as Baduizm had been; Q wrote that Badu's debut had raised expectations she did not meet on Mama's Gun, while Entertainment Weekly said it was plagued by "a reactionary pseudo-sophistication that too often substitutes good taste for good tunes." According to Badu in an interview a few months after the album's release, "it has sold 1.4 million in the US. So no, it didn't sell as much ... although creatively I feel like this is a better piece of work." She felt disappointed at first about its commercial performance, but was encouraged by the response from listeners at her concerts: "When I started to tour again and saw all the people show up who knew the words, it was confirmation that the work is not always for commercial success. It's also for spiritual upliftment." At the end of 2000, Mama's Gun was voted the 15th best album of the year in the Pazz & Jop, an annual poll of American critics published by The Village Voice. Christgau, the poll's supervisor, ranked it ninth best on his own year-end list. The Times named it the ninth best record of the year. It was also ranked ninth by Rolling Stone, while Jon Pareles named it the year's fifth best album in his list for The New York Times. The newspaper's Ben Ratliff later said Mama's Gun and D'Angelo's Voodoo were "the great neo-soul records of 2000". The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. In the 2020 reboot of their list of 'The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time', Rolling Stone ranked Mama's Gun at number 158. Track listing Notes indicates a co-producer. Personnel Musicians Erykah Badu – vocals, acoustic guitar (track 9), MPC2000 drum machine (12) James Poyser – piano, Rhodes electric piano, Minimoog, organ, clavinet, Arp String Ensemble (tracks 1–5, 7–9, 14) Pino Palladino – bass (1, 5, 9, 14) Jay Dee – programming (2), drum programming (3), bass (7, 8) Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson – drums (1, 4, 5, 7–9, 14) Leonard "Doc" Gibbs – percussion (5, 7, 8) Shaun Martin – keyboards (6, 10, 12, 13) Braylon Lacy – bass (6,