As many who are familiar with Erykah Badu's music, videos, and all around personae, it should be no surprise when she gets caught up in some controversy. She came under fire earler this year with her controversial video for "Window Seat." Now she's letting her feelings be known with the current state of mainstream music.
“How y’all gone stand by and let our music turn into pop techno cornball ass music,” Badu asked her Twitter followers, referring to the watered down, cheesy electro, dance, and pop sounds currently dominating radio. “We don’t own our music no more. come to think of it , did we EVER own it ? where is the funk AT?”
The shift in popular music caught Badu by surprise. “They playd 6 in a row today- #pop techno songs back to back . with so called r&b and rap artist… on the hop hop station . where I been?”
What I loved about this question was that Erykah wanted to spark a debate to her younger followers to get an idea on what they think about today's music. “I wann hear from the young people? easy for me to complain about this techno-pop cause i have a taste for something else. but how do u feel?” she asked “I definitely don’t want to offend anyone . young people, I know this is the music of your generation.”
While she did question her younger fans, she did show signs of disappointment in the hip hop community. “These rappers ought to be shame of they damn selves,” she chided. “I’m talkin bout the mc’ s rappin over this pop techno music… I believe in pimpin the system [but] got DAMN! not like this.”
I actually agree with Erykah on this. While I do love electro, dance, and pop music, I despise the type of dance that has been dominating radio as of late. Personally speaking, I haven't listened to the radio ever since Wendy turned in her mic and went into daytime television. I feel as a music consumer and fan, we need all types of music to be out there. Variety doesn't exist anymore, and analog radio is three minutes away from becoming extinct. It also doesn't help that there are so many mainstream artists jumping on the bandwagon simply because it's what's hot at the moment, and doing a bad imitation of the good shit that Madonna and Kylie have been successful at doing for years. I also find it hilarious that you have Pitbull, Flo Rida, Diddy, Usher, Rihanna, and Chris Brown all jumping on the dance bandwagon because it's what's selling. It also makes me question where your loyalties lie? Now I'm all for crossover appeal, but when it comes off as tacky and desperate, is when you come off looking like a pathetic loser. I love me some Sade, Erykah, Jill Scott, Maxwell, etc., but in this age where everyone's trying to sell as many records as Lady Gargoyle, this industry is on the verge of collapse.
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