Erykah Badu is causing quite a stir.
As last reported, the risk-taking singer’s new controversial video for “Window Seat” is igniting debate on the Internet as the clip has even become the subject of discussion on mainstream cable news networks such as MSNBC. Credit a bold mix of Badu’s shocking nudity, a brazen nod to the 1964 assassination of President John F. Kennedy (the video was shot in Dallas’ very same Grassy Knoll location where the JFK was struck down) and the vocalist’s own artistic assassination for kicking up major dust. Critics are now even charging Badu with disrespecting the memory of one of America’s most revered political leaders for commercial gain. Yet, the singer, who insists that the video is a statement on breaking free from society’s stagnant “group think” conventions, told BETthat shooting the clip was just as heavy as its layered message.
“It was shot in Dallas, TX at the Grassy Knoll guerilla style, that means one steady cam, one shot, one chance to get it right, because I wasn’t doing it again,” she said. “I was petrified, but I knew once I unzipped the hoodie there was no turning back. After the video was done, I went all the way through to the end, stayed as long as I could because we heard that the po po was coming and we just ran like hell and got out of there.”
Badu continued: “It was a very liberating thing for me. I feel like I shed a lot of things, confronted a lot of fears. I hope I spoke for women and men and people who feel trapped under their own coverings, who wish to also be liberated.”
Badu’s New Amerykah Part Two (Return of the Ankh) hits stores today. —Keith Murphy
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