Erykah Badu and Summer Walker stun on the cover of Rolling Stone’s ‘Musicians On Musicians’ cover this month!
The soulful-duo join together to talk everything from UFO’s, stardom and the coronavirus pandemic.
More below…
Walker and Badu may seem like an unlikely pairing, but they share more in common than one may think. Both come from respected points of the music industry, are ‘hermits’, and they both share a common appreciation for each other’s art.
The First Lady of Neo-Soul kicked off the interview asking if Summer – who recently announced her pregnancy – was supersocial:
Badu: ‘So what’s going on, Summer? [Are you] supersocial, or are you a hermit like me?’
Walker: ‘I’m a super-duper introvert. Not because I want to be — I just don’t really understand human interaction. I don’t get it. So I just stay in the house.’
Badu: I used to think I was the odd man out all the time, or the strange person in the group, because I couldn’t relate to a lot of the emotions that people had. It’s something I had to figure out. Remember when you would have a fire drill or tornado drill at school, and the kids would have to get under the desks? Some kids would be crying, and I’d be wondering, “What’s wrong?”
They also discuss Summer’s love of the paranormal:
Badu: I know that you are very interested in the paranormal. I’m going to ask a super superpersonal question. Have you ever seen a UFO?
Walker: No. Thank God. Honestly, I would shit myself. I’ve seen some things that were unidentified in the sky, but I’m not going to call it anything. I’m going to say no.
Badu: Neither have I, and I’m just trying to figure out, “Why am I not good enough to be abducted by or visited by extraterrestrials? What do I have to do?”
Furthermore, the creative couple discussed their hand in songwriting:
Badu: ‘Tell me about how you became a recording artist. How long have you been singing?’
Walker: ‘I was singing since I was very young, but just for fun. I just started taking this seriously. It’s been two years.’
Badu: ‘Do you write your songs?’
Walker: ‘Yeah, I write them all. Well, until this last project, [producer London on da Track] got a little more upbeat pop stuff in there. But the heartfelt stuff is me. I’m not even going to ask you if you write your stuff.’
Badu: ‘I do write it. I like to have a big hand in everything. It sounds like you don’t have to do that. There are two kinds of artists, I think. There are artists who care about the process, and then there are artists who care about the end result. Then maybe there’s a third that’s in-between.’
The chat between the two came directly after Ms. Badu celebrated the 20th anniversary of her critically acclaimed sophomore LP ‘Mama’s Gun’. It also follows Summer’s pregnancy reveal via Instagram.
We’d most definitely be here for a collab between the ladies! But in the meantime, you can read the full excerpt via Rolling Stone here.