rock the boat even if what they are saying is an improvement on what the society is about. So it’s called Group Think and that was my main focus at the time. So my peace of performance art was um…was based around that thinking.

BC: That didn’t make you nervous? Because you were naked in underwear…
EB: “Yes I was petrified!”

BC: You didn’t look scared.
EB: “Well, I mean you know…you’re not ‘sposed to look scared…but I was. It was a ritual of sorts for me because…in my mind I’m thinking with…each layer of clothing I was taking off, I was also shedding a layer of fear. Because I was a afraid, you know. I took off my coat I shed to myself, education and miseducation; the second one was religion and the sector of being programmed; and then prejudice and being reduced to being a woman, and being reduced to being Black, or being reduced to being anything.

So I’m thinking about all these things as I’m stripping away these layers. And um, when I got to the end, as I was nude and symbolically nude in my thinking, that’s when I was assassinated. And also what you expect is for people to say things about it because it’s a shocking thing. You know when you do something shocking, people are gonna say something about it. But what is art…made for, why do we create? So that we can create dialogue. You want people to say something, they don’t have to say something favorable, they don’t have to like it, they don’t have to dislike it. They can be inspired by it to do their own thing, or protest, or whatever it is.”

BC: Do you feel like people couldn’t get past the agenda you were pushing because of the nudity though? Because the first thing a brother said was ‘You see how much ass Erykah got?’
EB: “That was by default because I didn’t know I had that much ass. I can’t see [myself walking naked] and until then I did not see that.”

On whether or not she got arrested for shooting the “Window Seat” video:
EB: “I did not…I ran. They threw me in like a lil’ cloak. It was just one take, guerrilla style. We just kinda…it was not rehearsed or anything…it was just one of those things.”

BC: One dude told on you right? From what I read…
EB: “I think so, one person complained or something like that. The city fined me $500….it was for nothing because my city loves me, but they just had to do something to make sure that the people who were not comfortable had some kind of justice and for that I respect them.”

BC: You said something very interesting, you said that you weren’t aware that you had as…
EB: “No I knew I had ass, I just didn’t know that it did that when I walked…LOL.” You know I’m a tomboy type person, you know I don’t wear tight clothes and all that stuff, so you would have never known that, I would have never known that. And uh…it was a good distraction because it did bring more attention to what I was saying. A lot of people still don’t get it, but it is what it is. It went viral, good.”

So as you can see, there was a method to Erykah Badu’s madness, so to speak. Sure she will forever go down in history as the neo-soul artist who walked through Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas butt naked with a stocking cap on, but she will also be known as the woman who had a bigger agenda in the works while doing so. Although I’ve gotta be honest, I still don’t think that’s what many people will be concentrating on every time they watched her peel off those sweat pants in the video though, I’m just keeping it 100% real family. Much respect to Ms. Badu for doing the same.