Erykah Badu
Erykah Badu
Erykah Abi Wright, better known by her stage name Erykah Badu, is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, activist, and actress. Badu's career began after opening a show for D'Angelo in 1994 in her hometown; record label executive Kedar Massenburg was highly impressed with her performance and signed her to Kedar Entertainment. Her first album, Baduizm, was released on February 11, 1997. It spawned three singles: "On & On", "Next Lifetime" and "Otherside of the Game". The album was certified triple...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionR&B Singer
Date of Birth26 February 1971
CityDallas, TX
CountryUnited States of America
I'm a product of its [american] teaching, of its thinking, of its -isms, of its religion, of its education. I am conditioned, raised and developed by America; I am America. And as it changes, my thoughts also change. Because no matter what I believe, what the powers-that-be believe will affect me.
When people are going on to the next plateau of whatever this thing is called life, I also want them to breathe easily, even if it's the last one they take here with us. I guess I'm the welcoming committee and ushering committee.
I'm a woman who has gone through many heartaches, enough to dedicate my whole life to trying to figure them out.
I'm a performance artist first; I'm a recording artist second.
Poor is the new black.
What makes me furious, not just because we're in an interview, but I don't like when writers take your words and put them somewhere else, in the wrong context in their own article about you.
Man, I don't want to have nothing to do with computers. I don't want the government in my business.
I imagine that when I am creating a song or a project or an album or putting some clothing together or cooking a meal, whatever it is, I don't really have a recipe. The fun part is to throw that big piece of clay in the middle of the table as hard as I can, and whatever shape it takes, that's what shape it takes, and then I start to carve away.
I don't want to think too much about how I'm carving and what I'm carving - you are just carving away the excess clay and there's a piece underneath there. And it's kind of like getting out of the way. Maybe that's what the commonality is: It's getting out of the way so that the art can speak.
Even if the project requires you to have all the ducks in a line, I can't do that. I don't create way.
What draws me to a project is how sympathetic I am toward it, so that I can relax into it and give up myself.
Whenever I think about funk music, it has a look - and that's how it sounds.
Breathing becomes really easy when you're laughing. It kick starts that feeling of joy.
Whereas I want everything to be peaceful during a birth, I take the total opposite approach when I'm helping someone come to terms with leaving this place - I play Richard Pryor records.