By Manila Ryce
Published Monday, April 21st, 2008, 10:31 pm
Filed under: Videos: Music, Videos

10 Responses to “Erykah Badu - On & On”

1. Damn right they do.

   Those who genuinely believe in and organize their lives around silly metaphysical propositions despite a conspicuous lack of evidence for them are indeed a frightening majority.

   Dan
   04/22/08 at 7:19 pm
   
2. 

   Apparently, that majority is only second to those who fail to grasp the meaning behind brilliant lyrics.

   Manila Ryce
   04/22/08 at 7:23 pm
   

3. Oh, I get it.

   It’s just a clever metaphor which happens to be couched (quite arbitrarily, I’m sure) in religious terms. The possibility that Ms. Badu may actually believe that we are the creation of an anthropomorphic, male-gendered deity would certainly have no bearing on this choice of metaphor whatsoever. Thanks for setting me straight.

   Dan
   04/24/08 at 7:42 pm
   
4. 

   Um, no. By forcing your subjective view of what religion is into the work of someone you’re embarrassingly unfamiliar with, you’ve been able to twist an empowering message which could’ve been pulled from a Malcolm X speech into a call for subjugation. Badu is referring to a founding concept within Black Nationalism with the line “if we were made in his image then call us by our names”. I’ll explain.

   Black Nationalist theology teaches that black Americans need to overcome their slave mentality by recognizing that they are actually the incarnations of God. Badu is saying that God is a god of the oppressed, and that black people in America are His chosen people. Thus, those who do not fear God will fear the divine retribution which black Americans will bring through revolution once those tired of being slaves recognize their own moral superiority to the slave master.

   Unless you’ve got a giant chip on your shoulder which causes you to rail against religious fundamentalism where none exists, then your own personal beliefs on religion are quite irrelevant to this message. You’re doing what the corporate media did to Revered Wright by ignoring the message in its entirety and twisting lines that serve your personal agenda.

   Manila Ryce
   04/24/08 at 9:43 pm
   

5. I’ll be the first to acknowledge that I am not deeply familiar with Ms. Badu’s work, although based on what little I have heard of it, I would say she has some extraordinary talent. I don’t know that this lack of familiarity necessarily renders me unqualified to call into question the religious basis of certain lyrics. To be sure, you’ve situated the lines from Badu’s song in their historical and sociopolitical context, something of no small importance. My posting could have been tempered by an awareness of that context. I understand that art is not created in a vacuum. I don’t agree, however, with your charge that I “twisted” the lines, as though I’ve deviously attempted to ascribe to them some out-of-the-blue, non sequitur meaning where no such meaning could otherwise have existed. If I am guilty of anything, it has been to neglect context as well as to examine the lines and to take the word “we” to mean all humanity rather than solely the black community. On that I stand corrected.

   Your points are well taken, but I think there is something to be said for calling a spade a spade. While Badu’s main objective in her song may be to allude to the important social and ethnic movement of black nationalism and its relevance to the current state of ethnic inequality, the phrases “if we are made in His image” and “believe in God” nevertheless invoke certain unfounded claims about the universe, namely, that there is a God and that, as you’ve pointed out to me, blacks are made in His image. The black nationalist movement carries with it, by your own admission, an underlying theology, which makes similar fact claims. Notwithstanding the allusion intended in Badu’s lyrics, it seems a fair bet that “God” still means God and “made in His image” still means made in His image. For all the nuance and context you’ve brought to light, the lyrics remain explicitly charged with a belief in God or a creator entity, which is what I’ve been critiquing from the start.

   Your concern seems to be to defend the lines of the song as being of a moment and speaking to a particular social issue (a point I will gladly concede) and perhaps also, by implication, to defend what you may view as the usefulness of religious belief as a vehicle of solidarity. If I’m correct about the latter, then it probably goes without saying that we are speaking at cross purposes, since my concern is to challenge the basis for and full spectrum of religious belief or faith (in any context), not just fundamentalism. As a gesture toward squaring up our widely disparate points of departure, I would submit that there is no good reason to believe things on insufficient evidence in order to create community or bring about social change. There is no reason to dress up human endeavors – endeavors that are noble and ethical in their own right – in the garb of nonsensical and superfluous religious ideology. People can be unified on the basis of their common humanity, their common cause (such as the cause of civil rights), or their common ethnic group without ever having to make false claims about the universe. The promotion of mythology as reality is entirely unnecessary to the project of conveying ideas and doing good things.

   Dan
   04/25/08 at 6:40 pm
   

6. I’ll say this first: I cannot write as well as either Dan or Manila. I do believe in God, and I’m glad I do, because I fear if I didn’t I would sound like as big of a douchebag as Dan does. Have a nice day.

   Brian
   02/15/09 at 2:00 pm
   

7. Brian, I don’t believe in any god and can write pretty damn good, but I still think Dan is just proving Manila’s point.

   Dedgurlsingblu
   02/23/09 at 10:09 am
   

8. I believe in God as it appears Ms. Badu does as well. However, I think the basis of this song is about getting high off of marijuanna! Stop being so analytical.

   Carol
   05/13/09 at 10:44 am
   

9. yeah i agree with Carol

   Eden
   05/29/09 at 5:00 pm
   

10. “Those intellects do not believe in God but they fear us just the same”.

    This appears to say that those who believe in God fear her (”us”). And that even though the intellects don’t believe in God but they fear her (”us”)all the same (aswell).

    If those who believe in God are supposed to fear her then its assumed that she is working against God, (i.e. Satanic)!!
    I’m not sure but this seems to be the case.

    Bottom Line is however Christians shouldn’t listen to secular anyway especially if it means they are gonna have to sit down to decipher whether it’s of God or not. STICK TO GOSPEL THAT’S MUSIC ABOUT GOD!!! It’s stupid to listen to Erykah (who never claimed to sing for God or about Christianity) and judge her on whether she’s Satanic or not. it’s a waste of time!!!

    pqr
    05/29/09 at 7:10 pm
    

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