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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

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Erykah Badu
Age: 53
Born: 1971
Born: February 26
Actor
Composer
Jazz Musician
Poet
Record Producer
Recording Artist
Singer
Singer-Songwriter
Writer
Dallas
Texas
Erica Abi Wright
Erica Wright
Almost
Born
Black
Penitentiary
Young
Cloud
America
Heads
Men
Clouds
Like
Harder
People
Philosophy

More quotes by Erykah Badu

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I grew up listening to old soul
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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.
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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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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.
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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.
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[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.
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I think we [with Riccardo Tisci] share a sensibility about art - we pull from the ancient future.
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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
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I just love expressing my joy and my mind through what I wear, or how I cook, or how I dance, or how I write or perform a song - how I move.
Erykah Badu
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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
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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
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I've been a vegetarian since I was 19.
Erykah Badu
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My favorite jewelry, it's just what I'm feeling at the time.
Erykah Badu
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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
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I don't read music or anything, so when I produce, I go basically by ear.
Erykah Badu
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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
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Breathing becomes really easy when you're laughing. It kick starts that feeling of joy.
Erykah Badu
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I have an apartment in Brooklyn - I guess I call it my shrine. I go there to create and recoup, or hibernate sometimes, but my home is in Dallas where I live with my children.
Erykah Badu
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I was the bohemian in my family, the this is my favorite shoe and I don't care if it has tape around it kind of person. The tape could become a fashion statement. Or a political statement.
Erykah Badu
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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.
Erykah Badu