I'm inspired by Earl Sweatshirt. He's a really honest writer, and he's unusually intelligent.
In music, it makes for a good platform to take time and really mold a piece the way I need to mold it. When it comes to fashion, I create a functional art that moves.
I solidify his [ Riccardo Tisci] vision and what he is trying to manifest, make it a crystal or solid thing because of the relationship I have with my culture and what my music means to him.
My first, my birth mother - her name is Queenie - she gave me a powerful medicine when I was a child. She told me that, "I was the best," and it helped me so much.
[Riccardo Tisci ] has an interesting approach to weaving the contemporary with the couture, and blending tribes and collections. It always seems to work.
I was sitting at home one day and I got a call that Riccardo Tisci was considering me for the face of the Givenchy Spring/Summer 2014 campaign, and I said, "Are you kidding?" and that was the end of the conversation. I'm a really big fan.
My nine-year-old daughter is very creative and colorful and trendy.
All the women in my family were very creative.
My mom was the Diana Ross of our clan. She was always up-to-date, and always knew what to do and what not to do in a fashion sense.
Through [my children] patience, they're showing me how much they support what's going on, because I'm having to do a lot of work right now.
We're all friends, inside the music and outside the music. I mean, we don't sound anything alike, we don't approach our music anything alike, but we come from the same genuine place. We want our music to be real and we don't want to compromise our art.
I think what makes people think that is because of things people write. It really doesn't have anything to do with the artist.
When I get ready to do an album, that means I have something to say for the sake of words, and I listen back to all of the things I've been creating and pull things from out of the air to go with them. It's almost like I start creating the album before I even think about creating it.
If you make a decision, a pact with someone, your friend, you should say, 'I'm gonna do this,' and you should stick to it.
I actually started writing it because I was inspired by my own personal growth.
I'm in training to become a midwife. I'm almost there and before I know it I'll be able to open my own practice, if that's what I desire.
I'm only in competition with my last level. It don't have nothing to do with music or anything. And the last level is hard competition, the last place you were.
We literally just finished making this gown 20 minutes ago. I love it. It's my favorite color.
I know the community mostly for its art and culture... and of course its food, I eat at their restaurants." "They make you feel like taking off your shoes... it feels like home.
I love to leave the interpretation of my music up to the listener. It's fun to see what they'll say it is
Erykah Badu projects don't even sound like Erykah Badu projects. I don't even have one album that sounds like another one of my albums.
I'm kind of a recluse when it comes to going outside.
I imagine that when I am creating a song or a project or an album or putting some clothing together or cooking a meal, whatever it is, I don't really have a recipe. The fun part is to throw that big piece of clay in the middle of the table as hard as I can, and whatever shape it takes, that's what shape it takes, and then I start to carve away.
Even if the project requires you to have all the ducks in a line, I can't do that. I don't create way.
What draws me to a project is how sympathetic I am toward it, so that I can relax into it and give up myself.
