Erykah Badu has never shied away from making a statement, and the enigmatic songstress did just that with her outfit at the 2025 Billboard Women In Music Ceremony.
On Saturday (March 29), Badu both performed and accepted the Icon Award at the annual show – and wore a custom-made bodysuit that looked like a BBL on steroids.
Social media has been ablaze with takes on the meaning behind her look since then, with everything from her making fun of BBL culture to making a reference to 19th-century Khoisan performer Sarah Baartman to paying homage to Upper Paleolithic Venus figurines.
While she has not yet confirmed exactly what the inspiration was, Badu did post a short film she made in the bodysuit to social media and said that the “full figure form” was her idea and that it was made by designer Maya Hasbany.
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“A lil Hippy. Rise of the dark divine feminine. – a short film by E. Badu,” she captioned it. “Full Figure Form imagined by e. Badu. Engineered and Built by @myahhasbany.”
On the music side of things, Erykah Badu has a new album on the way – and it’s set to be produced entirely by The Alchemist.
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In an interview with Billboard earlier this month, Badu confirmed that her sixth studio album – her first LP in over 15 years – is currently in progress.
“The album has been taking up most of her time; she says she can’t wait until she’s done,” the publication wrote.
Badu and the legendary producer first teased a collab back in December, when Alc posted a series of photos showing them in the lab.
He captioned the montage “Life altering,” but didn’t elaborate any further as to what they were working on.
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Erykah’s last studio album was March 2010’s New Amerykah Part Two (Return of the Ankh), which debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200. Later that year she released her first and only compilation album, Icon, and in 2015, she released her first and only mixtape, But You Caint Use My Phone.
Since then, the elusive artist has only jumped on a handful of features – most recently being Rapsody‘s Grammy Award-winning “3:AM.”
The track, which lives on Rapsody’s 2024 album Please Don’t Cry, went on to win a 2025 Grammy for Best Melodic Rap Performance.
