Erykah Badu has never been one to bite her tongue when it comes to sharing her opinion on social issues. And when it comes to politics, the singer made one thing clear: "I don’t believe in any of that shit."
Badu explained why she’s been a bit apprehensive to engage in American politics in her forthcoming cover story for Fader magazine's annual Producer's Issue.
"I don’t know how much we have a say… It’s a show, it’s a game," Badu told the magazine. "On the smaller scale, I think that your city reps and district reps are very serious about what they’re doing, and then when they get up a little higher it becomes a show. Everybody gets kinda turned out."
As for her thoughts on Republican Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential bid, she summed it up as: "The craziest sh*t I've ever seen in my life. Is this real? But it will become a reality, if that's what the plan is."
Despite her jaded thoughts on politics, the Grammy Award-winner has never been one to shy away from addressing other hot button topics and issues through her music, such as social justice. Badu explained to the magazine her inspiration for addressing police violence on her 2008 album, "New Amerykah Part One (4th World War)" which was prior to the start of the now prominent Black Lives Matter movement.
"I felt it coming on. I was really feeling a strong affinity toward writing about what was going on around me," she said. "And I actually wrote about what's happening right now in that album. So I don't feel the need to write it now, because I got it out."
In addition to Black Lives Matter, the singer encourages more social movements to form in an effort to address black-on-black crime.
"We can organize like a motherf**ker when police beat us up, but can we organize to stop black-on-black crime, or poor-on-poor crime," she added. "Because, you know, poor is the new black. You don't have to be black now."
Read more of Erykah Badu's Fader magazine interview here. Fader's 2016 Producers Issue hits newsstands on May 10.
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