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When I Get Ready To Do An Album, That Means I Have Something To Say For The Sake Of Words, And I Listen Back To All Of The Things I've Been Creating And Pull Things From Out Of The Air To Go With Them. It's Almost Like I Start Creating The Album Before I Even Think About Creating It.

-Erykah Badu

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When I Get Ready

Erykah Badu

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When I Get Ready To Do An Album, That Means I Have Something To Say For The Sake Of Words, And I Listen Back To All Of The Things I've Been Creating And Pull Things From Out Of The Air To Go With Them. It's Almost Like I Start Creating The Album Before I Even Think About Creating It.

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I Think What Makes People Think That Is Because Of Things People Write. It Really Doesn't Have Anything To Do With The Artist.

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He Definitely Does What A Partner Is Supposed To Do, That Is, Evolve You.

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African American

A Home Birth Is About Being Able To Create Exactly What You Want, Because It's Such A Violent Moment Inside Of The Body That You Want Everything Else To Be As Beautiful As It Can Be.

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I'm A Recovering Undercover Over-lover.

Through [my Children] Patience, They're Showing Me How Much They Support What's Going On, Because I'm Having To Do A Lot Of Work Right Now.

Things Are Useless Without Practice.

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Man, I Don't Want To Have Nothing To Do With Computers. I Don't Want The Government In My Business.

My Fifth Mother Is Mother Nature - The Things I Had To Learn On My Own, The Understanding I Had To Come To And Still Have To Come To As A Young Woman, As A Responsible Mother, A Responsible Granddaughter And Child. She Teaches Me Willpower, Honesty, And The Things We Need To Heal Ourselves From Moment To Moment.

I Love Putting The Music Together. It's Like Art

Erykah Badu Projects Don't Even Sound Like Erykah Badu Projects. I Don't Even Have One Album That Sounds Like Another One Of My Albums.

I'm Pretty Mutable As A Human Being, Period - If You Put Me On Pluto, I Can Figure It Out.

[the Land] Is A Film That Just Happens To Be Directed And Written By A Puerto Rican Guy With A Black Dad. It Seemed Like A Very Natural, Human Interaction Between People Who All Just Came From One Common Cesspool Of Bad Luck.

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.

It's Just That Little Box In The Middle Of Fort Greene, Brooklyn. Most Of The Time I Go I Don't Even Leave That Apartment. I Have Just Enough: A Little Bed, A Little Kitchen With Two Pots. I Make Some Tea And I Look Out The Window Or Just Lay Down.

I Know That I Want To Concentrate More On My Inside-pretty Than My Outside-pretty, Because Thats Gonna Go Away. But If Your Inside Is Beautiful, It Never Wears Away. The Light Always Shows On The Outside If You Are Striving To Be Good Inside.

I Don't Sing Melodically. Rhyme Pattern Is How I Sing. I Also Write Like A Lyricist Or An Mc Because That's What I Was Before I Was A Singer. I Just Took Those Elements And Put Them Into Music.

I Was Sitting At Home One Day And I Got A Call That Riccardo Tisci Was Considering Me For The Face Of The Givenchy Spring/summer 2014 Campaign, And I Said, "are You Kidding?" And That Was The End Of The Conversation. I'm A Really Big Fan.

I'm A Performance Artist First; I'm A Recording Artist Second.

You Don't Have To Believe Everything You Think.

My Eyes Are Green, Cause I Eat A Lot Of Vegetables, It Don't Have Nothing To Do With Your New Friend

My Fourth Mother, My Godmother, She Passed Away A Couple Years Ago - Her Name Was Gwen. She Was The Theater Director Over At The Gym Where I Grew Up And Learned About All Those Awesome Things I Told You About Already. She Was The One Who Taught Me Terms Like "upstage" And "downstage," All Those Technical Things About The Art Of What I Do - How To Breathe What I See, How To Move. They Were All Her Tactics, Not Anything Learned Or Given To Me Through A Theory, But Rather By Her Natural Abilities.

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.

There Are Millions And Billions Of Atoms Of Memory Of All Kinds Of Musical Themes In Me.

I Relate To That - He Inspires Me Across The Board. His Music Inspires Me And Reminds Me To Maintain Honesty In The Things That I Do, To Have An Absence Of Fear. Listening To Earl Sweatshirt's Music Is Like Therapy To Me.

I'm Learning From Them! Everyone Says That, But It's True. You Learn More About Yourself From Them Than From Any Other Lesson.

Hopefully My Music Is Medicine, Some Type Of Antidote For Something Or Some Kind Of Explanation Or Just To Feel Good.

I Can Be Erykah The Human Being More Than The Celebrity.

I Don't Know If I'll Ever Accomplish Most Of My Dreams - I Have So Many.

We Mainly Focus On Putting Music, Art, Dance, Theater, All Forms Of Art, Back Into The Community, So The Community Can Put It Into The World.

Anything That Had To Do With Art I Been Doing All My Life. It Was A Gift. It's Nothing I Work Real Hard At Doing.

Art Is The Absence Of Fear.

If We Were Made In His Image Then Call Us By Our Names. Most Intellects Do Not Believe In God But They Fear Us Just The Same

I Have A Daughter Who's Four, Who's Dainty And Princess-esque. I Still Get To Dress Her Like My Little Accessory. I Think I Have One More Year To Do That, Then She's Going To Get Her Own Ideas - So I Better Move Quickly!

I View My Hair And Clothes As Functional Art.

I Encourage Breaking Free Of Self Inflicted Holding Pens. I Encourage The Use Of Intelligence In Every Decision. I Encourage Creating.

I Was Born To Make Mistakes, I Ain't Scared To Take The Weight.

I Trust The Political System To Be What It Is. It's A Structure To Keep The Country Running, A Boat To Get Us [citizens] From One Side To The Other, And It Has The Country's Best Interests At Heart. Not The People's.

Personally, I Don't Choose Any Particular Religion Or Symbol Or Group Of Words Or Teachings To Define Me. That's Between Me And The Most High. You Know, My Higher Self. The Creator.

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."

But Now I Realize That This Record Business Really Needs Me. No One Else Is Trying To Take A Chance Or Do Something Different.

My Hair Is An Aesthetic Choice… At The Same Time, How You Wear Your Hair Is A Political Statement As Well.

I Don't Have Any Particular Thing I Do Ritualistically. I Do The Same Thing Every Day. I Get Up. Drink A Lot Of Water. Have A Wheatgrass Shot. Drink Some Green Juice. Eat As Healthy As I Can.

Following Your Heart Also Means Eliminating The Things That No Longer Evolve You.

People Who Say That Music Is Dead Or Hip-hop Is Dead Are Refusing To Evolve.

What I Work Hard At Doing Is Staying On A Path Of Being Kind And Showing And Proving That I'm A Good Person To Society. That's Hard. The Talent, That's A Gift. I Just Came Here Like That.

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.

I Consider My Musical Ability To Be A Gift From The Creator. It's Not That I Try To Work Hard Or Nothing Like That, It's A Gift, It Was Given To Me, And I Appreciate It.

Musical Ability

When You're Performing, You're Creating A Moment.

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.

Now Keep In Mind That I'm An Artist And I'm Sensitive About My Sh*t

That's The Moment I Learned That The More You Believe In Yourself, The Stronger The Vibration Touches Someone Else, And Things Begin To Happen The Way You Dreamed That They Would.

Breathing Becomes Really Easy When You're Laughing. It Kick Starts That Feeling Of Joy.

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.

I Have A Pair Of Blue Pants That Were My Favorite For A While And Were A Part Of My Show Uniform - Every Night, You Know.

The Music Business Is Motivated By Money. Music Is Motivated By Energy And Feelings.

My Work As A Doula Also Extends All The Way To The End Of Life. I Sit At The Bedsides Of People Who Are Passing On In Hospices Or Nursing Homes, For The People And Families Who Want That Kind Of Thing.

Whenever I Think About Funk Music, It Has A Look - And That's How It Sounds.

Different Periods, Different Cultures - It's Just The Way My Mind Works. My Music Is That Way As Well. There's A Foundation But The Inspiration Comes From Everywhere. I've Been Influenced By So Many Things.

My Style Is A Little Masculine, And What I Loved About Pyer Moss Was How Well He Can Make A Blazer, The Looseness Of Those Pants, Or Color Palette That He Chooses From Season To Season.

I Think A Lot Of People Have Lost Respect For The Individual, You Know, The Individual, The Person Who Doesn't Conform.

I Solidify His [ Riccardo Tisci] Vision And What He Is Trying To Manifest, Make It A Crystal Or Solid Thing Because Of The Relationship I Have With My Culture And What My Music Means To Him.

I'll Dabble Here And There In Different Forms Of The Art, But The Label Has Me Locked Down Like A Slave So, Of Course, I'll Be Doing Albums During This Time

Now My Record Deal Helps Me To Do Things For Free Or Give More Time To My Community Than I Could Otherwise.

My Paternal Grandmother Gave Me The Courage To Investigate Things And Not Take Things At Face Value Or Judge People By What I First Imagine Them To Be.

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.

Helping Someone

Better Think While It's Still Legal.

I Don't Read Music Or Anything, So When I Produce, I Go Basically By Ear.

I Grew Up Listening To Old Soul

If You Invite Negativity In, You Have To Feed It And Hang Out With It. Best Not To Invite It In.

What A Frequency What A Voice. I Love Bilal. I Couldn't Imagine A Music World Without His Voice.

I Planned My Success. I Knew It Was Going To Happen.

Congratulations

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.

I'm Not Trying To Win An Award For Being The Best Vegetarian, Just Want To Be Healthy.

Im A Hip-hopper, And Its Something You Live And Do. It Makes Me Angry That Were Misrepresented, That Were Being Killed Every Day By One Another, By The Government, By The Food We Eat, The Choices We Make. It Makes Me Angry Because It Doesnt Have To Be That Way And It Is.

Hip-hop Is The People. What The People Are Moving Toward Is What Hip-hop Is. I Think People Are Moving Toward A Freer Way Of Thinking. Openness.

I Don't Require Sex For Happiness - I Need Companionship. I Need A Partner I Can Depend On, That I Can Love And Grow With.

I Am Not Systematic At All When It Comes To Religion. I Just Love Life. And I'm Not Judgmental. And I'm A Vegetarian.

I'm Not Trying To Win An Award For Being The Best Vegetarian, Just Want To Be Healthy. Take A Salt Bath. Do Things That My Parents Were Never Able To Do. I'm Blessed To Do Anything I Want So I Decide To Take The Best Care Of My Body And My Family In The Same Way. Holistically. Vitally.

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