Erykah Badu, originally Erica Wright, was born on February 26, 1971, in Dallas, Texas.
Known for her distinctive neo-soul and R&B sound, she often drew comparisons to jazz icon Billie Holiday.
Badu, who had no formal music training, initially pursued dance and theater at Grambling State University but dropped out to focus on singing.
After catching the attention of Kedar Massenburg, she launched her solo career, quickly finding success with her debut single “On & On” and album “Baduizm,” both winning Grammy Awards.
Throughout her career, Badu released several acclaimed albums, merging socially conscious lyrics with various musical styles.
Here are some of the famous quotes by Erykah Badu.
Best Erykah Badu Quotes
Time to eliminate things that no longer evolve me. ~ Erykah Badu.
The wise healer endures the pain. Cry. Tears bring joy. ~ Erykah Badu.
In the morning, instead of saying to yourself, ‘I got to wake up’ say ‘I get to wake up!’ ~ Erykah Badu.
We literally just finished making this gown 20 minutes ago. I love it. It’s my favorite color. ~ Erykah Badu.
People who say that music is dead or hip-hop is dead are refusing to evolve. ~ Erykah Badu.
Art is the absence of fear. ~ Erykah Badu.
People are uncomfortable with sexuality that’s not for male consumption. ~ Erykah Badu.
Poor is the new black. ~ Erykah Badu.
I think people who vibrate at the same frequency, vibrate toward each other. They call it – in science – sympathetic vibrations. ~ Erykah Badu.
When you’re performing, you’re creating a moment. ~ Erykah Badu.
Don’t let anybody infiltrate your dream. ~ Erykah Badu.
I’m a recovering undercover over-lover. ~ Erykah Badu.
Inspiring Erykah Badu Quotes
I’d rather see a person with a natural mind and processed mind than a processed mind and a natural head. ~ Erykah Badu.
I really can’t say what inspires me the most, because I’m inspired by just about everything. My feelings and relationships, my family, Scooby-Doo. Opinion of my work. Everything. Not just one thing. ~ Erykah Badu.
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. ~ Erykah Badu.
I just keep going. When the water’s too still, I start splashing around and things jump out of the water. ~ Erykah Badu.
I don’t want to think too much about how I’m carving and what I’m carving – you are just carving away the excess clay and there’s a piece underneath there. And it’s kind of like getting out of the way. Maybe that’s what the commonality is: It’s getting out of the way so that the art can speak. ~ Erykah Badu.
Breathing becomes really easy when you’re laughing. It kick starts that feeling of joy. ~ Erykah Badu.
I’m a woman who has gone through many heartaches, enough to dedicate my whole life to trying to figure them out. ~ Erykah Badu.
Famous Erykah Badu Quotes
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. ~ Erykah Badu.
I don’t read music or anything, so when I produce, I go basically by ear. ~ Erykah Badu.
I love watching Rihanna in fashion. I like to see her take chances and risks. I like seeing Naomi Campbell in the forefront. They’re both women who stand out and use their bodies as canvases to introduce this functional art to the world. They carry it in a way that is very inspiring. ~ Erykah Badu.
When it comes to fashion or any high art, you have to have a combination of delicacy, along with taste. ~ Erykah Badu.
I don’t think it matters what school you go to, but I think it’s important for parents to be involved. And to know that when school stops, learning continues, and to continue teaching at home. ~ Erykah Badu.
If you invite negativity in, you have to feed it and hang out with it. Best not to invite it in. ~ Erykah Badu.
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. ~ Erykah Badu.
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. ~ Erykah Badu.
Popular Erykah Badu Quotes
Whereas I want everything to be peaceful during a birth, I take the total opposite approach when I’m helping someone come to terms with leaving this place – I play Richard Pryor records. ~ Erykah Badu.
What singing means to me, I never did consider myself a singer, I just let people watch me feel music and how it comes through me. I’ve worked on it and practiced a lot. I mean, music, I dance to it, and singing is just one way of getting it out of me. ~ Erykah Badu.
No one chooses to raise children alone. ~ Erykah Badu.
What opens my heart is when my son wakes me up in the morning, nudging me and saying, ‘Mommy, mommy!’ ~ Erykah Badu.
I’m just being who I am and expressing myself as everyone else does. ~ Erykah Badu.
It’s weird, but if I decide to do an album, then the ideas start fitting themselves together. I consider myself a nice, slow burn. Plus, it’s not a race. And I have a lot to share. ~ Erykah Badu.
What a frequency, What a voice. I love Bilal. I couldn’t imagine a music world without his voice. ~ Erykah Badu.
Peace and Blessings manifest with every lesson learned. If your knowledge were your wealth then it would be well earned. ~ Erykah Badu.
Great Erykah Badu Quotes
I really enjoy being the child’s ‘welcoming committee’ and to help someone usher his or her spirit into the world in a very peaceful way is very effortless to me. ~ Erykah Badu.
I view my hair and clothes as functional art… ~ Erykah Badu.
The reason why you don’t see people looking like me is because I don’t encourage that. I encourage you to be you. ~ Erykah Badu.
Be you. Make sure you’re saying something when you’re saying something. It’s important to sound like you, to feel like you, to be like you. Be you. ~ Erykah Badu.
I try to be honest and I keep moving. ~ Erykah Badu.
Hip-hop was created out of necessity. We needed to create some digitized things to help us understand what we were feeling. ~ Erykah Badu.
My eyes are green, Cause I eat a lot of vegetables, It don’t have nothing to do with your new friend. ~ Erykah Badu.
The light always shows on the outside if you are striving to be good on the inside. ~ Erykah Badu.
Whenever I think about funk music, it has a look – and that’s how it sounds. ~ Erykah Badu.
Top Erykah Badu Quotes
I’ll dabble here and there in different forms of the art, but the label has me locked down like a slave so, of course, I’ll be doing albums during this time. ~ Erykah Badu.
He definitely does what a partner is supposed to do, that is, evolve you. ~ Erykah Badu.
You don’t have to believe everything you think. ~ Erykah Badu.
My hair is an aesthetic choice… At the same time, how you wear your hair is a political statement as well. ~ Erykah Badu.
Personally, I don’t choose any particular religion or symbol or group of words or teachings to define me. That’s between me and the most high. You know, my higher self. The Creator. ~ Erykah Badu.
During childbirth and hospice I’ll sing gospel songs that my grandma taught me when I was younger, or something I’ve made up, or I’ll hum. I just play things that I think the audience will like. ~ Erykah Badu.
Following your heart also means eliminating the things that no longer evolve you. ~ Erykah Badu.
Thought-Provoking Erykah Badu Quotes
But now I realize that this record business really needs me. No one else is trying to take a chance or do something different. ~ Erykah Badu.
We as Black people have to tell our own stories. We have to document our history. When we allow someone else to document our history the history becomes twisted and we get written out. We get our noses blown off. ~ Erykah Badu.
Hip-Hop is bigger than the government. ~ Erykah Badu.
Some people come up and ask for an autograph and don’t even look at me. They’re like, ‘Here, do it.’ That don’t bother me, but it doesn’t open my heart. ~ Erykah Badu.
I planned my success. I knew it was going to happen. ~ Erykah Badu.
A home birth is about being able to create exactly what you want, because it’s such a violent moment inside of the body that you want everything else to be as beautiful as it can be. ~ Erykah Badu.
I grew up listening to old soul. ~ Erykah Badu.
Profound Erykah Badu Quotes
I actually started writing it because I was inspired by my own personal growth. ~ Erykah Badu.
My truth is relevant and my songs are relevant, but I have to recalibrate myself and speed up my vibrations so that I can communicate with the voice of this generation. ~ Erykah Badu.
Vegan food is soul food in its truest form. Soul food means to feed the soul. And, to me, your soul is your intent. If your intent is pure, you are pure. ~ Erykah Badu.
My work as a doula also extends all the way to the end of life. I sit at the bedsides of people who are passing on in hospices or nursing homes, for the people and families who want that kind of thing. ~ Erykah Badu.
We lock ourselves into our own philosophies, our own religions, our own walks of life, and if we fail, we condemn ourselves and then we get sick. ~ Erykah Badu.
I’m pretty mutable as a human being, period – if you put me on Pluto, I can figure it out. ~ Erykah Badu.
Better think while it’s still legal. ~ Erykah Badu.
I’ve had two children. I’ve had three boyfriends. I’ve had a lot of things happen that can change your opinions and values and philosophies. ~ Erykah Badu.
Powerful Erykah Badu Quotes
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.
I was born to make mistakes, I ain’t scared to take the weight. ~ Erykah Badu.
Hopefully my music is medicine, some type of antidote for something or some kind of explanation or just to feel good. ~ Erykah Badu.
I knew it would happen. I knew I’d be No. 1. I’m a new artist; I don’t know the rules. Nobody told me it wouldn’t happen. ~ Erykah Badu.
So the most natural thing to me is to stay as pure to or real to or close to who I am as possible. ~ Erykah Badu.
I believed in myself, and I’ve always worked very, very hard as an artist, and I am an artist in every sense of the word. ~ Erykah Badu.
I encourage breaking free of self inflicted holding pens. I encourage the use of intelligence in every decision. I encourage creating. ~ Erykah Badu.
I think a lot of people have lost respect for the individual, you know, the individual, the person who doesn’t conform. ~ Erykah Badu.
So these were the 77 top Erykah Badu quotes and sayings.
If you like these quotes and sayings, then you can also read my other posts on Kendrick Lamar quotes and Alexander Hamilton quotes.
