00:00Seeing Erykah Badu, that's such a huge inspiration.
00:12Oh my gosh.
00:13Oh my gosh.
00:14I love her so much.
00:16Like, I want to be her.
00:18Man, I love Erykah.
00:19I mean, I grew up listening to Erykah.
00:20I will never forget where I was when I discovered Erykah Badu.
00:23I remember watching her first video on and on.
00:28I just remember that.
00:31I think of the video and how beautiful with the head rap.
00:34This whole head rap moment, I said, I need to get back to my roots.
00:38It was something we hadn't seen yet and especially hadn't seen in such a way that we were promoting it.
00:43When she had called Tyrone, I thought she was talking to me.
00:46I was like, who is Tyrone?
00:48I think I heard the song Apple Tree and I was like, good lord.
00:52And instantly I was just like, what is this sound?
00:55I was just, you know, overwhelmed by the beauty of it.
00:57From there, I fell in love with her.
00:58She went against the grain.
00:59She was just herself.
01:00Yes.
01:01What I love about Erykah is that she stands out.
01:04I looked up to that in her and I think a lot of women after that were like, you know what?
01:08I'm going to do my own thing.
01:09It's a different type of swag.
01:10You know, it's probably not even called swag.
01:13It's Baduism.
01:14She's continuously evolving, not only herself, but shifting culture at the same time.
01:20I mean, she's just given us such a story and narrative of just the black female experience
01:25when it comes to love, relationship, family, sexuality, all of it.
01:30She encourages and inspires us to be strong.
01:33I just remember her telling me, never dim your light.
01:36Don't dim your light.
01:38And that's always stuck with me.
01:39I never underestimated the audience's ability to deem my truth or my perspective valuable.
01:46You know, because I'm them.
01:48We're mirrors.
01:49Still evolving and growing together.
01:51So that's the most important thing.
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