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

What makes me furious, not just because we`re in an interview, but I don`t like when writers take your words and put them somewhere else, in the wrong context in their own article about you.

Anything that had to do with art I been doing all my life. It was a gift. It`s nothing I work real hard at doing.

I believed in myself, and I`ve always worked very, very hard as an artist, and I am an artist in every sense of the word.

I don`t read music or anything, so when I produce, I go basically by ear.

I don`t read music or anything, so when I produce, I go basically by ear.

But now I realize that this record business really needs me. No one else is trying to take a chance or do something different.

What I work hard at doing is staying on a path of being kind and showing and proving that I`m a good person to society. That`s hard. The talent, that`s a gift. I just came here like that.

I started performing at two or three on a tape recorder, one of those little flat recorders where you just push PLAY and RECORD.

I thought the Billie Holiday comparison was beautiful. I think, Wow, what a wonderful, creative, helpful spirit. She`s someone who wanted to help others by sharing her emotion. That`s what I do, too, so I think that`s a great comparison.

I am not systematic at all when it comes to religion. I just love life. And I`m not judgmental. And I`m a vegetarian.

I consider my musical ability to be a gift from the Creator. It`s not that I try to work hard or nothing like that, it`s a gift, it was given to me, and I appreciate it.

Man, I don`t want to have nothing to do with computers. I don`t want the government in my business.

I`ll dabble here and there in different forms of the art, but the label has me locked down like a slave so, of course, I`ll be doing albums during this time.

I think a lot of people have lost respect for the individual, you know, the individual, the person who doesn`t conform.

The kind of music or the kind of arrangements that I do, the kind of musicians I choose, is just what I like to hear.

Music and the music business are two different things.

Music and the music business are two different things.

It`s almost like a lot of black people in America, a lot of young black men, are born with this cloud over their heads. It`s their penitentiary cloud, this philosophy we all have, that it`s harder for us.

Well, if you look at all of the cultures in America, this is a great opportunity for us to really get acquainted with the rest of the world. America is the only place you can do that, but we don`t have sense enough to take advantage of that.

As Erykah Badu, it has nothing to do with me, the way I look, my hair wrap, my style, it`s about you and what you feel for my music. If I can make you feel like the way that people who influenced me made me feel, that`s completion.

Marvin Gaye is one of my favorite revolutionaries. He spoke from his heart, his mind. That`s what I want to do.

The music business is motivated by money. Music is motivated by energy and feelings.

Personally, I don`t choose any particular religion or symbol or group of words or teachings to define me. That`s between me and the most high. You know, my higher self. The Creator.

I knew it would happen. I knew I`d be No. 1. I`m a new artist; I don`t know the rules. Nobody told me it wouldn`t happen.

I love to leave the interpretation of my music up to the listener. It`s fun to see what they`ll say it is.

I grew up listening to old soul.

I don`t feel like I need to preach to the world or nothing like that. I just feel like I share what I say, and if listeners get it, they get it. And I never underestimate the audience`s ability to feel me.

I love putting the music together. It`s like art.

I`m not satisfied with the explanations I get from tv or from school.

I have a master plan as an artist. I`ve always said I`m not going to be punching nobody`s clock. I will work as an artist to survive in this world.

From then on, I realized this is what I want to do, what I`m supposed to do: Giving energy and receiving it back through applause. I love it. That`s my world. I love it. I enjoy it. I live for it.

I have the ability to sing with emotion and feeling, but if you say I sound like Billie Holiday, that`s cool. Let`s look at who Billie was: she was this person, this singer, this beautiful diva who could move the audience with the slightest gesture of her hand.

What does music mean to me? I don`t think I would really be much without it, without it coming through me. It`s my means of communication, my means of growth, my means of transportation from one point in my life to another.

Oh, yeah, I see the world differently now. Actually, when I first had the baby, I was breast-feeding him for two years straight. So we were together for two years of his life, every single day, all hours of the day. So I was two people, and I eventually morphed back into one.

Hopefully my music is medicine, some type of antidote for something or some kind of explanation or just to feel good.

I`m free. I just do what I want, say what I want, say how I feel, and I don`t try to hurt nobody. I just try to make sure that I don`t compromise my art in any kind of way, and I think people respect that.

And I figured out that the reason I couldn`t get through the day as well as I can now is because I had too many things on my mind, on my plate, you know, for one person to have. So I started to eliminate some of the things that were too heavy to carry and unnecessary.