I'm free. I just do what I want, say what I want, say how I feel, and I don't try to hurt nobody. I just try to make sure that I don't compromise my art in any kind of way, and I think people respect that.
Erykah BaduRead
I view my hair and clothes as functional art.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the idea that personal style can embody artistic expression.
Erykah Badu's quote suggests that how we present ourselves through our hair and clothing is not just a matter of practicality but can also serve as a form of art. By viewing these elements as functional art, she highlights the creative and expressive potential of fashion and personal grooming, inviting individuals to see themselves as artists in their own right.
In practice
During a fashion show, I might say, 'I view my hair and clothes as functional art, as each piece tells my story.'
I'm free. I just do what I want, say what I want, say how I feel, and I don't try to hurt nobody. I just try to make sure that I don't compromise my art in any kind of way, and I think people respect that.
Hip-hop was created out of necessity. We needed to create some digitized things to help us understand what we were feeling.
Hopefully my music is medicine, some type of antidote for something or some kind of explanation or just to feel good.
Hip-hop is not something we do, it's something we live. It's the way we dress, the way we talk... everybody bobbing to the same beat. It's a culture, and you have to find your own place in that culture. Top 10 or Top 40 can't dictate that. They can only dictate what's marketable.
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.
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.
The great thing about using the past is that it gives you the most colossal freedom to invent. The research is necessary, of course, but no one writes a novel to dramatically illustrate what everybody already knows.
Fiction is a branch of neurology: the scenarios of nerve and blood vessels are the written mythologies of memory and desire.
No dancer can watch Fred Astaire and not know that we all should have been in another business.
Fiction is based on reality unless you're a fairytale artist.
What lists and awards don't measure - and I feel this strongly - is the lasting value of any work of art. They're a snapshot of a moment, and one should always consider their judgments in that context.
Let my children have music! Let them hear live music.
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