Driver's Seat

Earlier this year, Erykah Badu filmed an illegal guerrilla video in which she stripped nude in public and simulated being 'shot' at the site of JFK's assassination. Why? “Just to create dialogue, as any other performance artist does,” the American soul goddess says of the controversial video for 'Window Seat', the first single from her latest LP, 'New Amerykah Part Two (Return Of The Ankh)'.

“It was in the spirit of Josephine Baker or Yoko Ono or Nina Simone … My subject was 'groupthink', coined by Irving Janis in 1972. He was a sociologist. It means people are afraid to go outside social norms because they're afraid of being assassinated or ostracised by the group. They'd rather keep their honesty to themselves, even if they feel something is right or wrong. I think it's one of the biggest crimes committed against humanity in the religious arena, in the political arena, in the artistic arena, at work, in schools, in relationships, everywhere.

“I had a chance to shed all those things I feared, things I thought I believed … I chose to shed them so I could evolve with a clearer perspective. As artists, we don't want to offend or hurt people, but sometimes it happens. People don't have a right to go through life without being offended.”

Badu was charged with disorderly conduct for her public nudity and fined $500. After initially pleading not guilty, she paid the fine and was placed on probation until February. But it was never the threat of legal action that scared her. “I was petrified because I don't necessarily think I have the best body in the world,” she laughs. “Who does? We look in the mirror and we find one million flaws.

And I'm not a sexual type of person. Okay, that's the wrong thing to say, we're all sexual beings, but you know what I'm saying … I don't use my sexuality to sell records. I'm a performance artist. I sell out concerts all over the world without any aid for publicity, so that was not a reason to do it. I didn't need to do that. “There's not really a lot more to say about it, except that the video played out exactly the way real life played out. As the artist shed all her beliefs and worries and fears, she was assassinated.

People decided to say some mean things … It's funny, because in high school I used to say some mean shit. I was the worst! “I was a bully. I get it. I would tell jokes at other people's expense if it was funny to me. The studio audience in my head was always laughing. I wouldn't take your lunch money or fight you, but my sense of humour was rude and maybe a little abrasive. So now when I read something someone says, it doesn't take me off my square or make me feel worthless. It just helps me think, 'oh, okay, this is how that person felt’. I understand.”

Much of the criticism directed at the 'Window Seat' video centred on the minors who were present when it was filmed. For what it's worth, Badu's own kids - Seven, Puma and Mars (fathered by Andre 3000, The D.O.C. and Jay Electronica, respectively) - aren't fazed by their mum's antics.

“They grew up in a very artistic home,” the Grammy Award winning singer explains, “so nudity doesn't embarrass them, but that's just my children. When I told him about it, my six-year-old said, 'that's great, mum, can I have another pudding?' My twelve year old boy, I tested him to see what he was going to say if someone says, 'oh, your mum did a nude video', and he said, 'I'm just going to tell them my mum's a beautiful person and she's just having fun’. I immediately took myself less seriously after he said that.”

Despite the controversial video for 'Window Seat', 'New Amerykah Part II' is less politically charged than 2008's 'Part I', focusing more on grooves and romance than overt calls for social change. “'Part I' and 'Part II' are two parts of the same work,” Badu explains. “'Part I' is just the left brain, analytical, political, social aspect of who I was and how I felt, and 'Part II' is the right brain, more feminine, emotional, aspect of it. I wrote all those songs at one time. There were just so many and they said different things, so I just split them up, left and right brain.”

Erykah Badu plays Good Vibrations at Gold Coast Parklands on Saturday February 19.