These days, it’s not unusual for children of celebrities to enjoy the privileges which come with their parents’ fame, especially when it comes to growing a massive social media following at a fast pace. However, that’s not the case for Mars Merkaba Thedford, who despite being the daughter of the legendaries Erykah Badu and Jay Electronica, has kept a very low profile so far in her life.
Despite Mars’ lack of social media accounts, we‘ve learned many details about her life, hobbies, family, relationship with her parents, and a lot more thanks to the latter.
So who is Mars Merkaba Thedford? Keep reading to find out.
Who Is Mars?
Mars Merkaba Thedford was born on 1 February 2009, in Dallas, Texas USA, though other sources suggest that she was born in Brooklyn, New York City. She’s the youngest child of the famous soul singer Erykah Badu, and the only child of rapper Jay Electronica.
Mars’ birth was as special as possible, given how her father Jay live-documented the entire process on X – formerly Twitter. As the rapper wrote at the time, he and Erykah opted out of going to the hospital and using medicines to welcome their daughter, hiring a midwife instead. Not many family members were present during the labor process, which lasted around five hours until Mars was born at 1:30 PM that day.
Although Mars doesn’t have social media accounts, it’s known that she’s following the creative examples of her parents. As her mother Erykah revealed in 2022, Mars has a knack for visual arts and is a dancer, and actor, on top of playing the bass and being a comedian. Mars also makes constant appearances on her father’s Instagram, but not much is known about her future goals, whether she’s interested in a career in the entertainment industry.
Famous Parents
Erykah Badu
Born on 26 February 1971 in Dallas, Texas, Erykah Badu was born Erica Abi Wright. Erykah had her beginnings as a singer at four years old, as she attended The Black Academy of Arts and Letters, and also performed at the Dallas Theater Center throughout her childhood.
During her teens, Erykah adopted her current artistic name, including the term ‘Badu’ to honor her love for jazz. She attended Grambling State University, but didn’t finish her theater degree to concentrate on creating music, mostly focusing on R&B and hip-hop.
As she took several side jobs in creative-related fields to support herself in the mid-1990s, Erykah was signed to Universal Records, releasing her first album “Baduizm”. This debut album was welcomed by critics and R&B fans, gaining Erykah’s top positions on the Billboard charts for the genre and the Hot 100. She released her second album “Live” later that year.
The late 1990s saw Erykah debuting as an actor in the movies “Blues Brothers 2000” and “The Cider House Rules”, on top of releasing the albums “Mama’s Gun” and “Worldwide Underground” in the first half of the 2000s, finding commercial success with them.
Since then on, Erykah has released two studio albums, and several mixtapes, and toured the US and the world numerous times. She’s a multi-Grammy award winner.
Jay Electronica
Mars’ father Jay Electronica was born on 19 September 1976, in New Orleans, Louisiana as Timothy Elpadaro Thedford, though he later changed his name to Elpadaro F. Electronica Allah.
Jay rose to fame in 2007 with the release of “Act I: Eternal Sunshine (The Pledge)”, a mixtape which eventually gained him a place in Jay-Z’s label Roc Nation. Throughout the 2010s, Jay released several singles including “Just Begun”, “Close Your Eyes” and “Hard 2 Face Reality”. He released one extended play (EP) named “Style Wars”, but stayed away from releasing studio albums until 2020, when he released “A Written Testimony” and “Act II: The Patents of Nobility (The Turn)”.
https://www.facebook.com/jayelectronica/posts/792538788460175:792538788460175
Jay Electronica has also collaborated with dozens of rap and hip-hop artists, such as Swizz Beatz, Mac Miller, and Kanye West.
Erykah and Jay’s relationship lasted from 2005 to 2009, when the pair broke up for unknown reasons. Although not much is known about Erykah and Jay’s love story, they’re each other’s longest publicly known relationship.
Siblings
Mars Merkaba Thedford has two older siblings on her mother’s side. The oldest is her brother Seven Sirius Benjamin, born in 1997, the son of rapper Andre 3000, whose real name is Andre Benjamin.
According to a 2008 interview with Erykah Badu, her son has been inclined to follow a musical path from an early age, and is very similar in that sense to his father Andre. Seven plays the bass, piano, and guitar, on top of having a knack for singing, but didn’t choose a musical career, unlike his parents. As Erykah revealed in 2016, he was accepted into four colleges and was interested in choosing a career in psychology, arts, and science.
On the other hand, Mars’ older sister Puma Sabti Curry is more inclined to follow her parents’ creative paths. She was born in 2005 from the relationship between Erykah and rapper and producer The D.O.C, whose real name is Tracy Lynn Curry.
Puma is a model and fashion connoisseur, making creative choices for some of her mother’s photoshoots. She’s also an avid singer, as seen in a 2018 video shared by Erykah in which Puma was serenading the R&B legend on her birthday. On top of that, Puma debuted at the MET Gala in 2023.
As Erykah stated in an interview with The New Yorker in 2023, all her children were mostly homeschooled, and are close to their fathers.
Physical Appearance & Net Worth
Mars Merkaba Thedford is an Afro-American girl, with brown eyes and hair. Given that Mars keeps a low profile life, it’s unclear what her exact height is, though it’s fair to assume that she’s 5ft 4ins (1.63m) tall, considering that’s the average height for 15-year-old girls in the US.
Given Mars’ young age and her lack of publicly known endeavors, it’s unclear whether she has been enrolled in any financially rewarding projects. Nonetheless, her mother Erykah Badu has a net worth of $10 million, while her father Jay Electronica has a net worth of reputedly $8 million, so it’s fair to assume she’s benefiting from her parents’ fortune.
