“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.” PeopleGivingArtistBornChanceHeardMusic Business Author: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.” PeopleThinkingWritingArtist Author: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.” PeopleWayFeelsMeanWatchesSingingSingersOne WayJust OneWatch Me Author: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.” PeopleLooksHeartAsksMy HeartCome UpBotherLook At MeAutographs Author: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.” PeopleReasonLike MeReason WhyBe You Author: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.” PeopleHeartCountryRunningPoliticalSidesInterestCitizensStructureBoatPolitical SystemsBest Interests At Heart Author:Erykah Badu
“People who say that music is dead or hip-hop is dead are refusing to evolve.” PeopleMusic IsHip HopHipsEvolveHops Author: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.” PeopleEnjoyMy OwnPlansWelcomeCommitteesDefaultDoulas Author: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.” PeopleWayWantKindEndsHomePassingPassingsNursingEnd Of LifeNursing HomeHospicePassing OnDoulas Author: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.” PeopleIfsWantLastsNextBreatheWelcomeCommittees Author: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.” PeopleGivingHomeWantedJoyGrewPianoDay To DayElderlyNursingNursing Home Author:Erykah Badu
“A lot of people have dementia, which is great, because then they don't recognize me.” PeopleDementia Author: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.” PeopleHumansHappensFilmGuyBlackNaturalCommonWrittenLandDadLuckInteractionBad Luck Author:Erykah Badu
“I think a lot of people have lost respect for the individual, you know, the individual, the person who doesn't conform.” PeopleThinkingKnowsPersonsIndividualLostRespectConformityConformLost Respect Author: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.” PeopleThinkingWayWantFeelsTryingKindArtHurtCompromiseAquarius Author: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.” PeopleMenPhilosophyAmericaYoungBlackBornHarderCloudsBlack People Author: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.” PeopleThinkingWayMovingHip HopHipsHopsOpennessWay Of Thinking Author: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.” PeopleIfsWayFeelsLooksMadeI CanStyleHairWrapsCompletion Author:Erykah Badu
“I have advice for people - period - who are in unhealthy relationships: Follow your heart. It will get you to where you need to be. Sometimes it's hard, sometimes it's easy, the places that your heart takes you. But continue to follow it. Where the train leads you - you'll get there.” PeopleNeedsHeartSometimesHardEasyAdvicePeriodsTrainFollow Your HeartUnhealthyUnhealthy Relationships Author:Erykah Badu
“I strongly believe that the more positive my vibration is, the clearer my message will be. I keep my negative thoughts from infiltrating my pathway and my dreams. Other people's thoughts are none of my business.” PeopleBelieveDreamMessagesNegativeVibrationsPathwaysNegative Thoughts Author:Erykah Badu
“I had the opportunity, as a child, to grow up in a community center where I was exposed to theater, music, art, and computer science; things that I would have never had the opportunity to even meet had it not been for those people taking time out of their schedules, helping us as children to travel all over the world while sitting in a gymnasium. That's what I did before I was a musician, before I was a recording artist, I was a teacher and a community leader.” PeopleWorldChildrenArtHelpingArtistOpportunityGrowsCommunityLeaderGrowing UpTeacherComputerMusicianSittingTheaterExposedTake TimeSchedulesComputer ScienceGymnasiumsCommunity Centers Author:Erykah Badu
“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.” PeopleFirstsFacesValuesImagineJudgingGrandmotherFace Value Author:Erykah Badu
“I think people who vibrate at the same frequency, vibrate toward each other. They call it - in science - sympathetic vibrations.” PeopleThinkingVibrationsFrequencySympatheticVibrate Author:Erykah Badu
“People are uncomfortable with sexuality that’s not for male consumption.” PeopleMalesSexualityUncomfortableConsumption Author: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.” PeopleStoriesBlackWrittenNosesBlack PeopleDocumentsTwisted Author: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” PeopleWorldYearsFirstsTwoTogetherHoursBabyYeahBreastsTwo YearsFeedingSingle Life Author:Erykah Badu
