Erykah Badu Discusses Hitler, XXXTentacion, Bill Cosby in Controversial New Interview

Erykah Badu has never been one to shy away from controversy. Her general no-fucks-given attitude and willingness to speak freely give us many reasons to love her, but they also sometimes result in her saying things that we might not agree with. In an in-depth new interview with New York magazine's David Marchese, Badu makes provocative statements about, among other things, XXXTentacion, Bill Cosby... and Adolf Hitler. “I’m a humanist,” she says. “I see good in everybody. I saw something good in Hitler...Hitler was a wonderful painter.”

The Hitler comments were made after Marchese brings up a controversy from a decade ago, when Badu dealt with accusations of anti-Semitism after she praised Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who has been labeled an anti-Semite by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Anti-Defamation League, and others. “If you say something good about someone, people think it means that you’ve chosen a side," she explains. “But I don’t choose sides. I see all sides simultaneously.”

Marchese's response to Badu calling Hitler a “wonderful painter” is: “No, he wasn’t! And even if he was, what would his skill as a painter have to do with any 'good' in him?”

Badu responds, “Okay, he was a terrible painter. Poor thing. He had a terrible childhood. That means that when I’m looking at my daughter, Mars, I could imagine her being in someone else’s home and being treated so poorly, and what that could spawn. I see things like that. I guess it’s just the Pisces in me.”

Marchese counters, “But don’t you think that someone as evil as Hitler, who did what he did, has forfeited the right to other people’s empathy?" To which Badu responds, “Why can’t I say what I’m saying? Because he did such terrible things?”

Marchese: “Well, yes. But it’s also disheartening to hear you say that at a time, like now, when racism and anti-Semitism are so much in the air. Why would you want to risk putting fuel on that fire?”

Badu: “You asked me a question. I could’ve chosen not to answer. I don’t walk around thinking about Hitler or Louis Farrakhan. But I understand what you’re saying: 'Why would you want to risk fueling hateful thinking?' I have a platform, and I would never want to hurt people. I would never do that. I would never even imagine doing that. I would never even want a group of white men who believe that the Confederate flag is worth saving to feel bad. That’s not how I operate.”

Earlier in the conversation, Badu tells Marchese that XXXTentacion is one of the artists she is listening to right now. (XXXTentacion is currently in jail facing charges of aggravated battery of a pregnant woman, domestic battery by strangulation, false imprisonment, and witness-tampering.) “What’s your opinion on this larger discussion happening now about about whether we can separate the art from the artist, be it XXXTentacion or Fela Kuti or Louis C.K. or Bill Cosby or whomever?”

Badu says:

“I don’t want to get scared into not thinking for myself. I weigh everything. Even what you just asked me, I would have to really think about it and know the facts in each of those situations before I made a judgment. Because I love Bill Cosby, and I love what he’s done for the world. But if he’s sick, why would I be angry with him? The people who got hurt, I feel so bad for them. I want them to feel better, too. But sick people do evil things; hurt people hurt people. I know I could be crucified for saying that, because I’m supposed to be on the purple team or the green team. I’m not trying to rebel against what everybody’s saying, but maybe I want to measure it. Somebody will call me and ask me to come to a march because such and such got shot. In that situation I want to know what really happened. I’m not going to jump up and go march just because I’m green and the person who got shot is green. The rush to get mad doesn’t make sense to me.”