Karen Bernod sang on D'Angelo's "Untitled (How Does It Feel)," gave a wink to the camera as she backed up Erykah Badu in the "Tyrone" video and has worked behind the scenes with everyone from Whitney Houston to Mos Def. But with Some Othaness For U, Bernod's finally stepped out front, which is where she says she belongs.

"The background thing is my 9 to 5," said the Brooklyn-based Bernod, who has been writing songs and singing since she was in grade school and filling New York clubs for years based on word-of-mouth.

Some Othaness For U has much of the same neo-classic soul sound as Badu and D'Angelo's albums, with an emphasis on funky mid-tempo jams and jazz-inflected vocals. But Bernod said the album was anything but a calculated attempt to cash in on the latest musical trends.

In fact, the album grew straight out of a demo that she began selling at her club shows. And though she's been approached by major labels, Bernod said she wanted to release her music on her own terms, so she put the disc out on her own label, Natively Creative.

"Cookie-cutter music is always going to be there," she said, adding that she's not trying to be a Janet Jackson or Whitney Houston, though she admires what they've done in the mainstream. Instead, she's relying on her Web site (www.nativelycreative.com) to help create a buzz. It's a slow process, she said, but "Chillin' on the DL" is receiving radio play in Washington, DC and Austin, Texas.

Word-of-mouth also helped her establish her lucrative backup singer career. "I met Erykah through D'Angelo," she said. "I didn't really audition. Once someone like D'Angelo hears you and refers you, you're in."

Like her idol Roberta Flack, Bernod mixes sultry grooves with evocative lyrics like the yearning "Pray" and the sexy "The Pocket." But, as many of the great '70s soul icons did, Bernod explores spiritual and political issues, most notably on the album's opener, "Endangered Specie," a song she wrote the night Tupac Shakur died.

The song counts off the years in a man's life, but never gets past 25, ending with a mournful "Anotha brotha missin' from the 21st century." "I was thinking about all the young black men who live in danger every day," she said. "And looking at how some gangsta rap takes music and goes into all this violence and stupidity."

Bernod said she's already planning ahead for her second album, which might include songs in Spanish and Hebrew. "Wherever I go, I bring a little bit of the music back with me," she said. "But I didn't want to drop everything at once on my first album."