My hair ain’t never hung down to my shoulders. This brings me to one of the main topics of redefinition that Badu showcases in her music: questioning American society’s perception of beauty of the female body through self-love and acceptance.īadu’s song “Cleva” (Clever) from her sophomore album Mama’s Gun opens with: Her song “flawless” is an anthem for women to embrace how they naturally look. I woke up like diiss: the words spoken proudly from this generation’s most-known advocate for black womanhood through music, Beyoncé. This Pathos method of using the everyday language of black communities further allows her to connect with her audience. She also uses the word nigga from time to time in her music. Lyrics like See I picks my friends like I pick my fruit & Ganny told me that when I was only a yut clearly reinforcing black culture with the use of its vernacular. Aside from the spelling, one could clearly note the pronunciation of these words in her music. When searching Badu’s lyrics online, enough is spelled enuf and your is spelled yo. I had to make contact with other women while we examined the words to fit a world in which we all believed, bridged, our differences, And it was the concern and the caring of all those women which gave me the strength and enabled me to scrutinize the essential of my living.Īnother way Badu deviates her black listeners from the predominately white experience is her use of Ebonics in music. LanguageĪudrey Lorde in her book Sister Outsider says… This positive message sent to black women encourages them to redefine themselves by rejecting those one-dimensional perceptions of style that they’ve been bombarded by and embrace their own. Monae, like Badu, defends and praises her unique style, while in the chorus referring to herself as “Queen” because of her style and ability to embrace her uniqueness, despite all the criticism directed towards her.īadu adds to the track by saying that this song will provide the path to freedom because we have been droids for too long. Badu touches on this subject, as a feature, on the Janelle Monae song titled Q.U.E.E.N. Badu is also known for wearing large dreadlock and afro wigs.īy glamorizing this afro-centric style in her videos and concerts, she gave young women a taste of their own history rather than the white American culture that they were accustomed to seeing on a daily basis. She constantly wore head wraps, African dresses and scarves, African jewelry etc.
In a world where a majority of the media (magazines, television, etc.) commonly showcased, and preferred, the average clothing style of a white American person, Badu chose to wear afro-centric attire. Her first two albums, Baduizm and Mama’s Gun, are the platform for this analysis. Self-love towards your body, she often questions the norm’s perception of beauty and 2. Two societal aspects of renewal that are going to be covered in this analysis are 1.
A direct result of the second-wave feminism, Badu’s songs and music videos have made her a global icon for black women to look up to in the 1990’s, (which some refer to as the third-wave feminism). Since the second-wave feminism of the 1970’s, several African American women have urged their black sisters to fight this double discrimination specifically by redefining themselves by redefining the normative societal chokehold that has plagued and defined many black women for centuries.Įnter, the legendary Erykah Badu. If white upper-class male is what you presumed from the beginning, allow me to quote the always-profound OG Maco in saying…īlack women have always been victims to discrimination on both ends of the societal spectrum (race and gender). So I guess I’ll balance in the middle by stating the complete opposite… If you are black and if you are a woman living in America, privilege is something as rare as a neglected child feeling accepted in a foster home, the irony. The realness in me feels foolish to even state the blatant obvious but the writer in me urges to keep it “professional”. The United States of America, that we’ve all grown to love and cherish, willingly caters privilege to a specific group in this country.
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