Neo-soul goddess Erykah Badu recently sat down with Vulture for a rare interview, where she had some colorful opinions on everything from mumble rap and Kendrick Lamar to empathy and cognitive-dissonance reality. At one point, the Baduizm visionary even defends Adolph Hitler, you know — that guy responsible for the Holocaust.
When asked about a 2008 trip to Palestine, where she was reportedly criticized for seemingly defending Louis Farrrakhan and not defending Anti-Semitism, she used that argument that she “sees the good in everybody.”
“I’m not Muslim, I’m not Christian, I’m not anything; I’m an observer who can see good things and bad things,” Badu said. “If you say something good about someone, people think it means that you’ve chosen a side. But I don’t choose sides. I see all sides simultaneously. I’m also okay with anything I had to say about Louis Farrakhan. But I’m not an anti-Semitic person. I don’t even know what anti-Semitic was before I was called it. I’m a humanist. I see good in everybody. I saw something good in Hitler.
“Hitler was a wonderful painter,” she added.
Badu was given the chance to clarify and while she did denounce Hitler’s talent as a painter, she doubled down and blamed his childhood for the way he turned out.
“Okay, he was a terrible painter,” she said. “Poor thing. He had a terrible childhood. That means that when I’m looking at my daughter, Mars, I could imagine her being in someone else’s home and being treated so poorly, and what that could spawn. I see things like that. I guess it’s just the Pisces in me.”
Earlier in the conversation, she was asked her thoughts on XXXTENTACION, who is embroiled in legal trouble, and whether we should separate the artist from the music. She curved the question with, “I would never suggest that I have the popular opinion on this. Because I don’t.”
The Dallas native then recalled a random parable her grandmother told her before she explained, “I don’t want to get scared into not thinking for myself. I weigh everything … I would have to really think about it and know the facts in each of those situations before I made a judgment. Because I love Bill Cosby, and I love what he’s done for the world. But if he’s 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,” she continued. “But sick people do evil things; hurt people hurt people. I know I could be crucified for saying that, because I’m supposed to be on the purple team or the green team. I’m not trying to rebel against what everybody’s saying, but maybe I want to measure it.”
Later in the interview, Badu opens up about feeling out of place as a kid, the idea she takes rappers she dates to the “sunken place” (she has three children — one with Outkast legend André 3000, one with Jay Electronica and one with D.O.C.) and her definition of “Baduizm.”
Read the full interview here.
That bitch been slapped around so many times she gon retarded on some CTE shit
Can you elaborate? Your saying that because she has unpopular opinions? Is it a bad thing to see good in everyone? Sounds like a more optimistic lifestyle than you Mr Haywood. Maybe you should take some notes from the queen
She’s made claims in the past that DOC and Andre used to beat her. Y’all too fucking sensitive. Dre beat a woman half to death cuz she was affiliated with the wrong people, did you stop listening to his music?
Do you feel better about yourself?
“being treated so poorly, and what that could spawn” LMFAO like somebody actually believes the jevvish propaganda that A.H. became antisemitic because of some shit like that? FYI jevvs were not even harassed in Germany before they declared war on Germany, started boycotting german goods etc.
Sometimes its good to not comment about everything and leave controversial statements in ur head!
Everyone has their own opinion on issues. Why do we have to get worked up about everyone’s thoughts. She’s eccentric, this is not news. She has made great music, even though ADL will prob go crazy on this
Well this fuckin hippie psychedelic bitch should stick to the only things she can do the best : singing and getting pregnant with different rappers. And for all the stans finding million excuses to all the bullshit she’s been saying in interviews : get over yourself there is not a single chance you’re going to fuck erykah any day soon.
She so woke she went back to sleep like the rest of these fake revolutionary sleepwalking woke pro-Blacks who always cosign each other’s foolishness with that cosmic mumbo jumbo. Should have left it with there is some good in everybody, but the conscious clownery came out once again. If a crooked cop shoots her son because he feels “threatened”, we’ll see if she is so objective.
Fake wokes will be like “Naw bruh she ain’t a hoodrat, cause see she has 3 kids with 3 different daddies cause she channels the elements of the hotep ancestors with the libations of the cosmos of the African disapora…”
haha word!!! she been fell off. fake conscious bs!
she’s the damn devil
I respect her for not sharing popular opinion.
A hard upbringing can only excuse so much, at a certain point you have to realize that some people are inherently evil. Their childhood hardships may have worsened existing tendencies, but they were there all along and it’s the choice of a grown adult whether or not to act on them.
its one thing to think these things, but how can you as a ‘humanist’ think that sharing those opinions will bring any good, especially in today’s day and age? it seems delusional, she needs to get back to earth.