To quote singer Erykah Badu: “The object of art is to invoke inspiration and create dialogue. To stimulate. Sometimes it can arouse hidden or upfront fears.”
Other times, it can kick-start one of the all-time most agitated shots in the history of high-profile musical collaborations.
The latter was the case after Badu—a soulful and enigmatic Dallas-bred singer, who’s never been wont to sacrifice shock value in the face of true art—came upon the NSFW music video for her collaboration with the Flaming Lips, “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.”
Directed by George Salisbury, the video prominently features scenes of Badu’s sister, Nayrok, naked in a bath tub and covered in a series of bizarre, unknown substances.
The Flaming Lips released the video last week but apparently forgot to run it by Badu, who claimed that she would not have approved of the direction or concept had she had the opportunity to catch an advance screening.
Badu converted her Twitter feed into an “official Flaming Lips Vid discussion” on Monday, asking fans how the video made them feel and what kind of emotions they gleaned by watching the video. She retweeted many of the responses and was fair in her promotion, retweeting just as many positive responses as she posted negative ones.
Wednesday afternoon, Badu offered her own opinion on the video through an epic Twitlonger post aimed at Flaming Lips lead singer Wayne Coyne. Spoiler alert: She didn’t like it.
“perhaps, next time u get an occasion to work with an artist who respects your mind/art, you should send at least a ROUGh version of the video u PLAN to release b4 u manipulate or compromise the artist’s brand by desperately releasing a poor excuse for shock and nudity that sends a convoluted message that passes as art( to some),” she wrote.
Even with Window Seat there was a method and thought process involved. I have not one need for publicity . I just love artistic dialogue . And just because an image is shocking does not make it art.
You obviously have a misconception of who I am artistically. I don’t mind that but…
By the way you are an ass.
Badu then detailed the course of events that led to the lashing out, claiming that Coyne and his band released an unedited, unapproved version of the video. When asked what the concept meant, Coyne allegedly replied: ‘It doesn’t mean anything, I just want to make a great video that everyone is going to watch.”
Coyne, a beloved figure on Twitter who’s amassed 96,760 followers, has yet to publicly address Badu’s accusations, though his three tweets in response to fan reaction to the video were what launched Badu into the tailspin.
Needless to say, the two won’t be working on a sequel anytime soon.
Photo via Erykah Badu