Let Erykah Badu look into your eyes for too long--goes the standing joke amongst the Okayplayer crew--and she will have you in her power. Consider us bewitched. We had the chance to sit down with Miss Badoula while she was here in New York for her lecture at Red Bull Music Academy and much like the RBMA audience we were by turns surprised, charmed and busting out laughing as she spoke on everything from her recent cameos on tracks from Janelle Monáeand Bonoboto her collaborative chemistry on new efforts with Thundercat to when we can expect a new Erykah Badu album ("You can expect it whenever you want to..."). Along the way she tells tales of eating and sleeping with mama's actual gun by her side for several days to prepare for her role in Jeymes Samuel's all-black-everything western They Die By Dawn and provides some hilarious behind the scenes DVD extras on the making of her "Window Seat" video--notorious for it's public display of brown skin. But whether she is talking about nudity or about baring soul in the musical process, we predict Erykah Badu will have you under her spell right from the moment she introduces herself as "She ill" AKA "Green Eyes." Watch below--but don't look into those green eyes too long!
Videographer + Editor: Chinisha Scott
