In 1983, she released her debut solo album, The Songstress, under the Beverly Glen label. The album was a popular one and many of the songs made it to the music charts. Following the release of the album she had a protracted legal battle with the Beverly Glen label over payment of royalties and breach of contract issues. She won the case against the label in 1985. During that same year,, she signed a contract with Elektra Records label and was able to came out with her second album 'Rapture' in 1986. Anita recalls how if it had not been for The Songstress, she would not have gotten the attention from Elektra. She states, “[She] has grown so much. [She] has learned that [her] instincts are very sharp, and it comes with experience” (Norment 3). The album became a big hit, with over eight million copies sold worldwide and also led to ‘The Rapture Tour’. In 1988, Baker released her third album titled ‘Giving You the Best That I Got’ it immediately became a big hit. The title song and the song ‘Just Because’ became chart toppers. She was plumbing the roots of R&B, combining soul with the sophistication of adult pop at this point in her career. Steve Ivory, R&B editor of Black Beat magazine, says, “At a time when we're dealing with all this techno-pop with R&B artists who can't play instruments and can't sing, I look at [Anita] as an oasis on an island of mediocrity, [Anita’s] record-buying audience spans from the early teens to people in their 40s and 50s''(Jones). Rapture was critically acclaimed; yet Giving You the Best That I Got was criticized for sounding too similar. Anita explains how “[she] knew [she] had to do something different this time. This is basically the way [her] heroines recorded. ([They] got) the energy back that [she] thinks [they] lost on the last album” (Jones). Moving forward into 1990, she released the album ‘Compositions’ and songs like ‘Talk to Me’ and ‘Fairy Tales’ propelled the album past the million copies threshold in terms of sales. The songs were inspired by jazz music and Baker as involved with the songwriting process as well. After taking a brief hiatus from music, Baker came out with her 5th album ‘Rhythm of Love’ in 1994 and its song ‘Body and Soul’ became a chat topper. The album was an instant hit and sold in excess of two million copies making her one of her one of the few artists to have had the distinction of having four straight platinum selling albums. Towards the end of the year, she also took part in a ‘Rhythm of Love World Tour’ that went on for 11 months. Baker took a hiatus from music in order to look after her family and went back to recording in 2000. In 2004, she released the album ‘My Everything’ and in spite of the fact that she had returned to music after a considerable period of time, the album was appreciated by music fans and was certified gold. A year later, she released the album ‘Christmas Fantasy’.In 2007, she embarked on a two-year concert tour titled 'An Evening with Anita Baker' and performed at different events. Baker released her own version of the song titled “Lately” in 2012 and the song became quite popular. She has been working on the album featuring the single, "Only Forever", since 2010 but the release date of the album has still not been finalized.