Erykah Badu… 3 Dollars 6 Dimes do your math

“I was born underwater with three dollars and 6 dimes; Yeah you may laugh, cause you did not do your math”

-On & On by: Erykah Badu

That’s one of the absolute best lines ever written, hands down. If you know the song and understand the context of the song, you’ll see why. Erykah Badu is truly one of the best musical artists of our generation. Why? because of her fearlessness to pursue art, her need to be a student of art and to connect with people through it. These Red Bull lectures are really on point, here’s an incredible dialogue with Erykah Badu aka DJ Low Down Loretta Brown in which she tells the full story under no industry pressure.

“Dilla’s basement had categorized records on every wall from the floor to the ceiling… he was a scientist, in his fridge all of the coke cans were turned the same way. It was like a graveyard, everything was perfect. He didn’t talk alot, but he let me pick out records… One became ‘Didn’t cha know,’  he let me pick the spot in the record, and taught me how to sample.”

Kind of long so here’s the breakdown: 1st 25 minutes- Baduizm and beginning of career. 30-45 minutes- J Dilla. 45-54 minutes- World Wide Underground. 54-1:07- Motherhood, New Amerykah pt. 1 & 2. 1:08-1:14- “Music is Timeless.” 1:15-1:23 – Control FreaQ. 1:24-1:29 -Albums not Singles. 1:30-End- Questions.

Erykah represents spiritual and mental liberation that’s manifested through every aspect of her physicality. Her appearance, her fashion, her writing, her music; it’s all free. Liberation is unaffected by judgement or opinion; it just is.

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