"Bag Lady", an original musical composition was composed and created, not for hire, by Erykah Badu words and Dr. Dre music (original melodies and sequences sampled). Erykah Badu describes her hook as "Baduizm"; all about shedding emotional baggage and holding onto you. Craig Seymour further describes this "sing along", the part of the song that the audience can participate in and sing along with the singer, as "not an anthem about down and out". "Bag Lady" is a prime example of the wonderful healing powers of music, lessons in lyrics and a message in the music. .
This is a rhythm and blues song with a jazzy flavor; a Billy Holiday-like delivery. The song contains a musical hook that changes throughout the song. The hook is the catchy part of a song. It is the repetitious part that is implanted in your mind after hearing a song just once, it's the musical phrase that everyone remembers, it is the line you just can't get out of your head. There are at least three hooks in the song. In "Bag Lady", Erykah introduces the musical hook to the song in a very subtle, sublime but effective manner so as to reel in the listener very early. The song is patterned so that it allows the listener to get a quick grasp of the song on the initial listening, to remember it easily and feel a part of it. Even though the music is melodic and repeats itself over and over again, the words or lyrics are constantly changing, reestablishing or reinforcing the theme repeatedly, for example "Bag Lady you gon hurt your back", "pack light", and "is you, is you".
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The tempo of the song is slow to mid tempo with an eerie, skipping beat. The instrumentation is simple yet complete. The overall story is told in the verses of the song. The story suggests that there is a better way. The different episodes of the story are told through verses with interesting resolve in the hook. The lyrics are very visual where the listener can see the picture that Erykah is trying to paint or feel the emotion she tries to convey.
