Erykah Badu Quotes
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Hip-hop is not something we do, it's something we live. It's the way we dress, the way we talk... everybody bobbing to the same beat. It's a culture, and you have to find your own place in that culture. Top 10 or Top 40 can't dictate that. They can only dictate what's marketable.
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I started performing at two or three on a tape recorder, one of those little flat recorders where you just push play and record.
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I grew up listening to old soul
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Because you're responsible for [children]. You are there to protect them, not possess them. I tell them, "Watch me and you might learn something."
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I'm more like an oven than a microwave.
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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.
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Society has a problem with female nudity when it is not . . . ”—Badu pauses to get her words together; she wants this point to be very clear—“. . . when it is not packaged for the consumption of male entertainment. Then it becomes confusing.
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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.
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My truth is relevant and my songs are relevant, but I have to recalibrate myself and speed up my vibrations so that I can communicate with the voice of this generation.
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During childbirth and hospice I'll sing gospel songs that my grandma taught me when I was younger, or something I've made up, or I'll hum. I just play things that I think the audience will like.
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A lot of people have dementia, which is great, because then they don't recognize me.
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I love being an entertainer - not really fond of being a celebrity.
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I have the ability to sing with emotion and feeling, but if you say I sound like Billie Holiday, that's cool. Let's look at who Billie was: she was this person, this singer, this beautiful diva who could move the audience with the slightest gesture of her hand.
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In music, it makes for a good platform to take time and really mold a piece the way I need to mold it. When it comes to fashion, I create a functional art that moves.
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Breathing becomes really easy when you're laughing. It kick starts that feeling of joy.
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In the morning, instead of saying to yourself, ‘I got to wake up’ say ‘I get to wake up!’
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My mom was the Diana Ross of our clan. She was always up-to-date, and always knew what to do and what not to do in a fashion sense.
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As Erykah Badu, it has nothing to do with me, the way I look, my hair wrap, my style, it's about you and what you feel for my music. If I can make you feel like the way that people who influenced me made me feel, that's completion.
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I'm not trying to win an award for being the best vegetarian, just want to be healthy.
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What does music mean to me? I don't think I would really be much without it, without it coming through me. It's my means of communication, my means of growth, my means of transportation from one point in my life to another.
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The kind of music or the kind of arrangements that I do, the kind of musicians I choose, is just what I like to hear.
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I thought it was cool how [ Riccardo Tisci] wanted to blend Africa and Asia because they relate to each other in so many different ways.
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What a frequency What a voice. I love Bilal. I couldn't imagine a music world without his voice.
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He definitely does what a partner is supposed to do, that is, evolve you.