Erykah Badu Quotes & Sayings

Honey isn't really that good for you. — Erykah Badu

Whenever I think about funk music, it has a look - and that's how it sounds. — Erykah Badu

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. — Erykah Badu

I live in a queendom, ruled by a womb-iverse, — Erykah Badu

I create my own calm and I keep my balance, because I know that it's not really me, by myself ... The Creator always gives me the energy. — Erykah Badu

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. — Erykah Badu

When it comes to fashion or any high art, you have to have a combination of delicacy, along with taste. — Erykah Badu

[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. — Erykah Badu

What a frequency What a voice. I love Bilal. I couldn't imagine a music world without his voice. — Erykah Badu

All I want to do is give the world my heart ... Record label tryina make me compromise my art. — Erykah Badu

When you're performing, you're creating a moment. — Erykah Badu

Be you. Make sure you're saying something when you're saying something. It's important to sound like you, to feel like you, to be like you. Be you. — Erykah Badu

I think a lot of people have lost respect for the individual, you know, the individual, the person who doesn't conform. — Erykah Badu

I thought the Billie Holiday comparison was beautiful. I think, Wow, what a wonderful, creative, helpful spirit. She's someone who wanted to help others by sharing her emotion. That's what I do, too, so I think that's a great comparison. — Erykah Badu

I think what makes people think that is because of things people write. It really doesn't have anything to do with the artist. — Erykah Badu

I knew it would happen. I knew I'd be No. 1. I'm a new artist; I don't know the rules. Nobody told me it wouldn't happen. — Erykah Badu

Never knew what a friendship was, Never knew how to really love, You can't be what I need you to, & I don't know why I fuck with you — Erykah Badu

I started performing at two or three on a tape recorder, one of those little flat recorders where you just push play and record. — Erykah Badu

I'm more like an oven than a microwave, — Erykah Badu

All of my children are the same way I am. They're little artists too, in their own ways. — Erykah Badu

So the most natural thing to me is to stay as pure to or real to or close to who I am as possible. — Erykah Badu

I'm pretty mutable as a human being, period - if you put me on Pluto, I can figure it out. — Erykah Badu

I love putting the music together. It's like art. — Erykah Badu

Music and the music business are two different things. — Erykah Badu

I don't plan how many people I work with. I don't charge anything. It's for my own learning, and I just enjoy being the welcoming committee. I became a doula by default. — Erykah Badu

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. — Erykah Badu

What opens my heart is when my son wakes me up in the morning, nudging me and saying, 'Mommy, mommy!' — Erykah Badu

My hair is an aesthetic choice ... At the same time, how you wear your hair is a political statement as well. — Erykah Badu

The Man That Knowz Something Knowz That He Knowz Nothing At All. — Erykah Badu

I have so much music that I do. Just like how a visual artist is always sketching something but they might not share it, I'm always writing songs or coming up with melodic lines on piano or guitar. It's therapy. It's always happening. — Erykah Badu

When it come to da: " What it do?! I don't fall for da: "Woop- TeE- WoOoo! — Erykah Badu

They usually have a piano in every nursing home, and I always wanted to perform for whoever would listen when I learned something. I grew to understand very early that a lot of these people who are in nursing homes are elderly and don't have a lot of things that give them joy from day to day. — Erykah Badu

I really enjoy being the child's 'welcoming committee' and to help someone usher his or her spirit into the world in a very peaceful way is very effortless to me. — Erykah Badu

Oh, yeah, I see the world differently now. Actually, when I first had the baby, I was breast-feeding him for two years straight. So we were together for two years of his life, every single day, all hours of the day. So I was two people, and I eventually morphed back into one. — Erykah Badu

What singing means to me, I never did consider myself a singer, I just let people watch me feel music and how it comes through me. I've worked on it and practiced a lot. I mean, music, I dance to it, and singing is just one way of getting it out of me. — Erykah Badu

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. — Erykah Badu

I got a call from a mutual friend of ours, Charles King, who's also the executive producer. [Steven Caple Jr and I] had a conversation about it. I read it. We kind of finished each other's sentences when it came to the nuances and personality flaws that the character had, and some stereotypes and things we were trying to stay away from. We agreed on that as well. He just kind of allowed me to run rampant with the ideas. As we paced ourselves through, we developed Turquoise. — Erykah Badu

I believed in myself, and I've always worked very, very hard as an artist, and I am an artist in every sense of the word. — Erykah Badu

Vegan food is soul food in its truest form. Soul food means to feed the soul. And, to me, your soul is your intent. If your intent is pure, you are pure. — Erykah Badu

Well, if you look at all of the cultures in America, this is a great opportunity for us to really get acquainted with the rest of the world. America is the only place you can do that, but we don't have sense enough to take advantage of that. — Erykah Badu

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. — Erykah Badu

Breathing becomes really easy when you're laughing. It kick starts that feeling of joy. — Erykah Badu

We were all born, and we all came to the music business with everything we had. Some of us just don't get a chance. Now there's a lot of other people like myself, indeed, who are getting heard worldwide. That gives other artists a chance. — Erykah Badu

I try to be honest and I keep moving. — Erykah Badu

If you make a decision, a pact with someone, your friend, you should say, 'I'm gonna do this,' and you should stick to it. — Erykah Badu

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. — Erykah Badu

I just keep going. When the water's too still, I start splashing around and things jump out of the water. — Erykah Badu

I'd rather see a person with a natural mind and processed mind than a processed mind and a natural head. — Erykah Badu

From then on, I realized this is what I want to do, what I'm supposed to do: Giving energy and receiving it back through applause. I love it. That's my world. I love it. I enjoy it. I live for it. — Erykah Badu

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. — Erykah Badu

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. — Erykah Badu

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. — Erykah Badu

Artists need some kind of stimulating experience a lot of times, which crystallizes when you sing about it or paint it or sculpt it. You literally mold the experience the way you want. It's therapy. — Erykah Badu

I'm a complete human being. I'm very emotional and loving. I feel, I hurt, I give, I take, and also I think. I analyze. I'm a sociologist, anthropologist. — Erykah Badu

If you invite negativity in, you have to feed it and hang out with it. Best not to invite it in. — Erykah Badu

I'm kind of a recluse when it comes to going outside. — Erykah Badu

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 — Erykah Badu

Man, I don't want to have nothing to do with computers. I don't want the government in my business. — Erykah Badu

I'm only in competition with my last level. — Erykah Badu

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. — Erykah Badu

I love watching Rihanna in fashion. I like to see her take chances and risks. I like seeing Naomi Campbell in the forefront. They're both women who stand out and use their bodies as canvases to introduce this functional art to the world. They carry it in a way that is very inspiring. — Erykah Badu

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. — Erykah Badu

I'm a recovering undercover over-lover. — Erykah Badu

And I figured out that the reason I couldn't get through the day as well as I can now is because I had too many things on my mind, on my plate, you know, for one person to have. So I started to eliminate some of the things that were too heavy to carry and unnecessary. — Erykah Badu

Even if the project requires you to have all the ducks in a line, I can't do that. I don't create way. — Erykah Badu

I really can't say what inspires me the most, because I'm inspired by just about everything. My feelings and relationships, my family, Scooby-Doo. Opinion of my work. Everything. Not just one thing. — Erykah Badu

Some people come up and ask for an autograph and don't even look at me. They're like, 'Here, do it.' That don't bother me, but it doesn't open my heart. — Erykah Badu

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. — Erykah Badu

We're all friends, inside the music and outside the music. I mean, we don't sound anything alike, we don't approach our music anything alike, but we come from the same genuine place. We want our music to be real and we don't want to compromise our art. — Erykah Badu

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. — Erykah Badu

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. — Erykah Badu

We as Black people have to tell our own stories. We have to document our history. When we allow someone else to document our history the history becomes twisted and we get written out. We get our noses blown off. — Erykah Badu

I'm trying to decide
Which way to go
I think I made a wrong turn back there somewhere
Didn't cha know, didn't cha know
Tried to move but I lost my way
Didn't cha know, didn't cha know
Stopped to watch my emotions sway
Didn't cha know, didn't cha know
Knew the toll, but I would not pay
Didn't cha know, didn't cha know
Cause you never know where the cards may lay
Time to save the world
Where in the world is all the time
So many things I still don't know
So many times I've changed my mind
Guess I was born to make mistakes
But I ain't scared to take the weight
So when I stumble off the path
I know my heart will guide me back — Erykah Badu

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. — Erykah Badu

The light always shows on the outside if you are striving to be good on the inside. — Erykah Badu

I grew up with all mothers, all women. I come from a long line of matriarchs, very strong women. — Erykah Badu

I've been a vegetarian since I was 19. — Erykah Badu

I'm a Pisces, so I'm a very closed-book kind of person. — Erykah Badu

I'm a performance artist first; I'm a recording artist second. — Erykah Badu

No one chooses to raise children alone. — Erykah Badu

Hip-Hop is bigger than the government. — Erykah Badu

Now keep in mind that I'm an artist and I'm sensitive about my sh*t — Erykah Badu

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. — Erykah Badu

Art is the absence of fear. — Erykah Badu

I'm free. I just do what I want, say what I want, say how I feel, and I don't try to hurt nobody. I just try to make sure that I don't compromise my art in any kind of way, and I think people respect that. — Erykah Badu

I planned my success. I knew it was going to happen. — Erykah Badu

Following your heart also means eliminating the things that no longer evolve you. — Erykah Badu

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. — Erykah Badu

My eyes are green, Cause I eat a lot of vegetables,
It don't have nothing to do with your new friend — Erykah Badu

They play it safe, are quick to assassinate what they do not understand. They move in packs ingesting more and more fear with every act of hate on one another. They feel most comfortable in groups, less guilt to swallow. They are us. This is what we have become. Afraid to respect the individual. A single person within a circumstance can move one to change. To love herself. To evolve — Erykah Badu

The wise healer endures the pain. Cry. Tears bring joy. — Erykah Badu

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. — Erykah Badu

I love to leave the interpretation of my music up to the listener. It's fun to see what they'll say it is. — Erykah Badu

I know the community mostly for its art and culture ... and of course its food, I eat at their restaurants." "They make you feel like taking off your shoes ... it feels like home. — Erykah Badu

Better think while it's still legal. — Erykah Badu

This pain to remain the same outweigh the pain to change ... When you get tired enough is when you begin to want to sacrifice everything inside of you - the fear just leaves — Erykah Badu

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. — Erykah Badu

I love being an entertainer - not really fond of being a celebrity. — Erykah Badu

I don't feel like I need to preach to the world or nothing like that. I just feel like I share what I say, and if listeners get it, they get it. And I never underestimate the audience's ability to feel me. — Erykah Badu

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. — Erykah Badu