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Im gathering ideas, says Erykah Badu, talking over dinner at a vegan restaurant in midtown Manhattan.
Ill download new ideas at some point.
And anyway, its what she might do with the other four months thats most interesting to her lately.
I want to have a variety show, she muses.
I want to get my midwifery certification in direct-entry midwifery.
I want to build schools.
I want to join the Peace Corps.
I want to paint more seriously.
I want to help my children with their dreams.
But for now, shes happy to be here talking with you in the present.
She gives a knowing smile.
Because thats all there is.
Youre one of the rare musicians who manages to stay relevant with listeners younger than themselves.
I dont try and fight it.
The kids need vibrations, because their attention span is about three seconds.
Does that mean lyrics are less important than they used to be?I think so.
Hip-hop is not separate from the people.
It goes to where the people go, and part of what moves people is vibration.
People pray for that kind of movement, they pray for a Kendrick.
Kendrick getting his thoughts out plays a big role in other peoples thoughts.
How has hip-hop changed in the two decades sinceBaduizm?As much as the people have changed.
Were in such a different place.
My son,Seven, is 19.
Im seeing him evolve into this creature that I never thought I could create.
Without even trying, hes an improvement on his fathers design.
Its an evolutionary cycle.
Heres how I think of it: My favorite cartoon isThe Flintstones.Its the funniest thing to me.
Everything has sped up and recalibrated; the children are vibrating faster.
Theyre way ahead of us.
Thats how hip-hop has changed.
Im also listening to D.R.A.M.
and Lil Uzi Vert.
All new stuff because of Seven.XXXTentacionis another one.
Do all theallegations against XXXTentacionaffect how you think about his music?
Some people started yelling, Barabbas!
I always think about that.
Its so important to me.
Because I love Bill Cosby, and I love what hes done for the world.
But if hes sick, why would I be angry with him?
The people who got hurt, I feel so bad for them.
I want them to feel better, too.
But sick people do evil things; hurt peoplehurtpeople.
Im not trying to rebel against what everybodys saying, but maybe I want to measure it.
Somebody will call me and ask me to come to a march because such and such got shot.
In that situation I want to know what really happened.
The rush to get mad doesnt make sense to me.
They could be bad around children.
They could be bad with power.
Maybe they need to get kicked off the planet.
Each thing is individual.
There arent rules for how we can or should think about something.
We dont have to believe everything were hearing.
At least I dont think we do.
Im glad I dont watch this stuff.
The news, you mean?Everything.
I read the description of an empath and I think I fit the description pretty well.
Its about absorbing peoples feelings.
Okay, thank you.
I know this is maybe a weird pivot, but I think its relevant.
Even if you respect the person who holds that idea?Absolutely.
But I never made a statement about Louis Farrakhan ever.
What youre talking about happened in Palestine.
SoId gone to Palestineand journalists asked me, Do you believe in Louis Farrakhan?
Do you follow him?
Ill follow anyone who has positive aspects.
If you say something good about someone, people think it means that youve chosen a side.
But I dont choose sides.
I see all sides simultaneously.
Thats not something most of us are good at.Were not, and Im okay with that.
Im also okay with anything I had to say about Louis Farrakhan.
But Im not an anti-Semitic person.
I dont even know what anti-Semitic was before I was called it.
I see good in everybody.
I saw something good in Hitler.
Come again?Yeah, I did.
Hitler was a wonderful painter.
No, he wasnt!
He had a terrible childhood.
I see things like that.
I guess its just the Pisces in me.
It doesnt test my limits I can see this clearly.
I dont care if the whole group says something, Im going to be honest.
I know I dont have the most popular opinion sometimes.
Because he did such terrible things?
Why would you want to risk putting fuel on that fire?You asked me a question.
I couldve chosen not to answer.
I dont walk around thinking about Hitler orLouis Farrakhan.
But I understand what youre saying: Why would you want to risk fueling hateful thinking?
I have a platform, and I would never want to hurt people.
I would neverdo that.
I would never even imagine doing that.
Thats not how I operate.
I am a Pisces, actually.I thought so.
One fish is swimming upstream, ones swimming downstream.
We are all living in a cognitive-dissonance reality.
The hive mentality takes over.
When did you realize you didnt see the world like most people?Back in Catholic school inDallas.
When I was there I thought it was odd that we didnt question what we were doing.
What is this blood of the lamb?
What does this mean?
I just thought I was not fit for society.
And when did you realize you were?I guess at the time I discovered psychology in high school.
I came across a sociologist namedIrving Janis.
Thats when I said, Okay, I am a part of this, but a different part.
Is it frustrating to have that kind of legend follow you around?
It seems pretty clearly rooted in a kind of sexism.I take advantage of it.
Its a good thing if people think Im supposed to be some mystical creature that controls peoples minds.
How do you take advantage of it?I keep the prestige going.
I keep up the idea that Im mystical.
Can you characterize that presence?That I take rappers tothe sunken place.
I dont think thats what I do.
I hope its not.
Is positive projection just as silly to you as that kind of negative projection?
Those things are part of how people perceive me.
I never think of it as derogatory.
Even when there is an element of sexism to it I find it all hilarious.
It means youre powerful in a loving way.
Its been eight and ten years since your last two studio albums, which were both fairly political.
Now were here, in this political moment.
Are you feeling at all inspired to make new music?You know whats funny?
Im thinking about music, but its all about tuning forks, singing bowls, bells, drums.
I went to South Africa and recorded drums from Soweto, from Johannesburg, just gathering sounds.
Thats what Im interested in right now sound vibration.
If I put out another project, itll be like that.
Maybe Im humming or primal wailing or tribal moaning.
You know,I havent written anything in five years.
You mean no new proper songs?
You did put out that mixtape a couple years back.Thats right.If Im not inspired to write, I dont.
I just havent had anything to say.
I cant really force it.
If I did, what Id be saying wouldnt be coming from an honest place.
Or maybe Ive said all the things I feel like saying.
What about performing live?
Have your feelings about that changed?They havent.
I feel the most like me when I perform.
Thats why I do it so much never had a vacation.
Where do you gotta to be?Its about becoming a living, breathing organism with the people.
And it always happens.
I never have a bad show.
Whose fulfillment are we talking about?
I know what you mean, but to go years without hearing DAngelo did what he came to do.
He never had to make another record.
Lauryn continues to make music.
I dont think shes putting it out, but shes always recording.
I think we have something in common, usneo-soulmusicians, and thats honesty.
Making music hurts, or it feels good, and we do it when we have to.
And sometimes we dont.
Your relationship gets fucked up.
Your record label does some shit.
Lauryn has six children.
There are so many different circumstances why someone might not make music.
Itisselfish of you to want more from those people, and thats fine.
Everybody has their own shit.
Whats your shit?I dont have no shit right now, and Im so fucking happy about it.
I dont have a lot of needs, so maybe thats why I dont have any shit.
The culture is changing and people are resisting that.
The world is sick of the old shit.
The people are sick of being angry.
Theyre sick of hate.
Theyre sick of color.
Theyre sick of race.
Theyre sick of age.
But youre always going to have people who are resistant to progress.
People have such a hard time being uncomfy for a minute.
How do you talk with your younger children about politics?They talk with me about it.
But Im not a political chick at all.
Im macrocosmic in lieu of microcosmic.
I see a whole big picture.
I see freedom for the slaves and the slave masters.
What Im talking about isBaduizm, and I see Trump as part of the resistance to that.
Whats Baduizm?The way I see things.
Ive changed in a way that involves elimination for the sake of evolution.
Theres less emphasis on trying to figure things out.
Its about letting things be.
Im focusing on listening to the silence underneath everything.
Thats what I attempt to connect with.
Im in love with the silence.
Are we playing games here?
He cant really bethatbad.
It looks like a game.
Why are we being toyed with?
Does feeling like youre being toyed with make you want to disengage?We cant help but to engage.
Theres no way I can live without engaging and doing service for others.
Im a health practitioner and a Reiki master.
These things come easy to me.
You actively work as a doula?Yeah.
How do you find the families you work with?Serendipity.
Its always easy to find someone pregnant that needs me.
It just happens, you know?
I met one lady I worked with at a restaurant.
Ive assisted births at home, at birthing centers, at a hospital, in the woods.
It all depends on the person and their story.
Like Bruce Lee says, you have to be like water, and fit in any container.
I also sit at the bedside of people who are dying.
So I do the opposite of birth work its beings coming in and beings going out.
What do you do at the bedside of someone whos dying?Depends on the person.
Some want to listen to Richard Pryor.
Some want to listen to gospel.
Some want to talk.
Some want to cry.
Whatever service is needed, thats what Ill do.
I just want people to be at peace.
Ive read you describe yourself as a spiritual person.
When Im meeting people, its about the spirit first.
I think in the Hindu religion its calledNamaste: the divine in me recognizes the divine in you.
Thats spiritual to me.
Youre your own manager, which is extremely rare for a musician at your level.
I also want to be able to live outside of the music business.
And Ive been blessed with organizational skills.
Im always late, though.
I was sitting here for like an hour-and-a-half before you showed up.
[Laughs]I know.
When it comes to my business, though, Im very organized.
I just want to be able to do things without guilt.
I used to operate out of guilt.
It was no fun going back home to Dallas and driving a new car.
Or people would expect you to do something for them, or think you werent doing enough.
Oh, you know what?
I spun out of that when I went to Cuba, illegally, in 2000.
What happened?That trip was the trip where I left behind the big headwrap I used to wear.
I got a story about that.
Want to hear it?
Yeah, of course.I was dating Common.
And he took me to Cuba.
He said he wanted me to get a Santeria reading there.
I cant believe you fell for that line.
[Laughs] That line works!
I was into Candomble back then too.
AndLa Regla de Ifa.
That kind of thing was so exciting to me.
On my left was a man who had on the tightest white shorts you could see his nuts.
I was okay with that.
I wasnt okay with those two passing a cigarette back and forth over the white shit I was wearing.
But we were in Cuba, and it was their home, so I went with it.
Finally, this short little lady in a long yellow dress came out and said it was my turn.
Then what happened?So she brought me into a little room in a house with no ceiling.
Pablo was explaining everything to me.
Then a girl came in, without knocking, and reached over me to grab something off a clothesline.
I didnt need the headwrap anymore.
Do you remember the actual reading?I dont.
Maybe it was something like Dont get with Common.
And I said, I dont know.
But that sounds good.
Do we choose the people we want to be with when we come back?
I said, I dont know.
But maybe we do.
She said, Well, when I die, Im going to choose to be with you again.
It was easy tears.
It made me think that all that matters is how she sees me.
Its more that I was worried Is she about to get in here and Black Power me to death?
No no, not that at all.
But I think partly its that, as a JewOkay, I could tell.
Is it my schnoz?Just, you got a whole Jewish thing.
Ill take that as a compliment.It is.
But no, I wasnt offended.Oh good.
That makes me happy.
But what do I know?
I wasnt trying to put you in a difficult spot.And I wasnt trying to put you in one.
I was so surprised when I read that people thought Id said something anti-Semitic.
Then someone twisted what Id said around and made me into a villain or something.
What makes you nervous?Im over being scared.
When I feel the heart rate going or the palms getting sweaty, I start looking for the silence.
I just come back to the moment.
I remember watchingStar Wars
Which one?One of the ones from the 90s.
This relates to what were talking about.
That wasThe Phantom Menace.Yeah, you know what Im talking about.
So at one point, the guy who am I talking about?
He took a deep breath and then started back fighting.
Thats some Jedi shit!
I fell in love with that.
Whenever Im afraid, I do that: Take a minute and breathe.
No matter how scary something is, doing that helps it go away.
So its not that I dont have fear, but I manage fear pretty fucking well.
I just love to say, I dont know.
It makes life a whole lot easier.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
