Badu Quotes & Sayings

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. — Erykah Badu

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

When you're in a relationship you want it to work. My parents did, I did. But we are not taught how to make it work. — 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

A lot of people have dementia, which is great, because then they don't recognize me. — 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'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. — Erykah Badu

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

What draws me to a project is how sympathetic I am toward it, so that I can relax into it and give up myself. — Erykah Badu

I love the music of Lauryn Hill and Erykah Badu and more recently the music of Laura Marling. All these women share a strength and a wisdom in their voices and music that really makes me want to make music and sing. — Lianne La Havas

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

I'm in training to become a midwife. I'm almost there and before I know it I'll be able to open my own practice, if that's what I desire. — 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

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

The reason why you don't see people looking like me is because I don't encourage that. I encourage you to be you. — Erykah Badu

This guy! I plead the fifth. This guy is nuts."
- Eminem
"Dope questions, man. Very insightful, very thoughtful."
- Guru (Gang Starr)
"You like a Psychiatrist or some shit? This shit is just coming out but go ahead."
- Mary J. Blige
"Definitely a real interview! Digging deep up in there, man. Not afraid to ask questions!"
- K-Ci Hailey (Jodeci)
"The Wizard asked me for a copy of your magazine."
- Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo (Daft Punk)
"You didn't wear your glasses and you haven't carried your hearing aid. What else is wrong with you?"
- Bushwick Bill
"Peace and blessing, Brother Harris. Thank you for inspiring my words. Keep 'yo balance."
- Erykah Badu
"Can I see that pen?"
- Bobby Brown
"What else do you want to know? Talk to me."
- Aaliyah — Harris Rosen

I actually started writing it because I was inspired by my own personal growth. — 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

We lock ourselves into our own philosophies, our own religions, our own walks of life, and if we fail, we condemn ourselves and then we get sick. — 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

I mean thats a big part of our existence here on earth, the personal relationship we have with the person that we love, with the person that we make love to, with the person that we share our lives with. We expect a lot of things back from our loved one, and the lesson is to accept and not expect. — Erykah Badu

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

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

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

It's almost like a lot of black people in America, a lot of young black men, are born with this cloud over their heads. It's their penitentiary cloud, this philosophy we all have, that it's harder for us. — 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

Being honest is my job. That's what music is for me. — Erykah Badu

No one chooses to raise children alone. — Erykah Badu

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

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

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'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

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 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

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

I'm just being who I am and expressing myself as everyone else does. — 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 kind of a recluse when it comes to going outside. — Erykah Badu

Peace and Blessings manifest with every lesson learned. If your knowledge were your wealth then it would be well earned. — 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 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. — Erykah Badu

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. — 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

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. — Erykah Badu

I don't have one song that sounds like another one in my entire catalog. — Erykah Badu

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. — Erykah Badu

But now I realize that this record business really needs me. No one else is trying to take a chance or do something different. — 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

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

If you want to relate to a certain audience or generation, you have to speak their language. I truly believe that. — 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 grew up listening to old soul. — Erykah Badu

Art is the absence of fear. — Erykah Badu

The music business is motivated by money. Music is motivated by energy and feelings. — 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

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

Hopefully my music is medicine, some type of antidote for something or some kind of explanation or just to feel good. — 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

I can be Erykah the human being more than the celebrity. — 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

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

He definitely does what a partner is supposed to do, that is, evolve you. — 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 view my hair and clothes as functional art ... — Erykah Badu

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. — 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

I don't think it matters what school you go to, but I think it's important for parents to be involved. And to know that when school stops, learning continues, and to continue teaching at home. — 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 was born to make mistakes, I ain't scared to take the weight. — Erykah Badu

I'm not satisfied with the explanations I get from tv or from school. — Erykah Badu

I figure, if the mind just 'has' to be busy,why not make up happy shit? — 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