Her power over men is legendary. Her sound changed a genre. But Erykah Badu, the wigged-out herald of neo-soul, has remixed her 360-degree philosophy to become the new queen of the digital underground.
The always elusive Erykah Badu talks about life, music and love in her first interview with GIANT. Here’s a little of what she had to say about her highly-publicized romances:
“I know about the backlash, the ‘Erykah Badu, if you look at her, she’ll make you change gods and wear crochet pants’ backlash,” she says. “But nobody looks at the things that those people have given to me.”
What have they given you?
“Just so much musical freedom. Common is the most humble person I ever met. Kind and generous. He reinforced that in me. Andre is very creative and artistic. All of that that you see of him, that’s all him. That’s how he is, and that gave me a creative push, too.”
Although Badu is fairly cryptic when discussing her old beaus, she allows this brief, whispered indulgence.
“With Andre, we were both very young, so we didn’t know what we wanted or anything. We just knew we were in love, and we didn’t care who saw us. With Common, it was a little bit more mature.”
