I don't want to think too much about how I'm carving and what I'm carving - you are just carving away the excess clay and there's a piece underneath there. And it's kind of like getting out of the way. Maybe that's what the commonality is: It's getting out of the way so that the art can speak.

Erykah Badu projects don't even sound like Erykah Badu projects. I don't even have one album that sounds like another one of my albums.

Poor is the new black.

We mainly focus on putting music, art, dance, theater, all forms of art, back into the community, so the community can put it into the world.

I think we [with Riccardo Tisci] share a sensibility about art - we pull from the ancient future.

I solidify his [ Riccardo Tisci] vision and what he is trying to manifest, make it a crystal or solid thing because of the relationship I have with my culture and what my music means to him.

I planned my success. I knew it was going to happen.