Erykah Badu’s Window Seat Video Uncut

Photo from crowt59 via Flickr.

If you think Lady Gaga’s and Madonna’s music videos are controversial and shocking, then Erykah Badu’s newly released Window Seat video uncut will blow your mind. Badu’s most recent music video came out on March 28,2010, and already, it’s stirred up chatter and questions of all different kinds.

In her music video, Badu walks down a bustling street as she strips down to nothing; and the street she’s walking along also happens to be the very street in Dallas where JFK was shot. As if walking naked in public isn’t controversial and outrageous enough, doing so at such a monumental place is making people go crazy, and she might even be faced with criminal charges.

Erykah Badu has been an icon for many music lovers since early 1997. She exudes a style of hip-hop, R&B, and jazz that coalesces in a way that touches and moves people, not only through melodic rhythms, but also through her powerful lyricism. Her debut album Baduizm reached #2 on the Billboard Charts in ’97, with her lead single On & On holding the 12th spot on the singles chart in both the US and the UK. Some of her other acclaimed singles include You Got Me co-written with Jill Scott, Bag Lady which was nominated for a Grammy, and Love Of My Life (An Ode to Hip-Hop) with past-lover Common, which won Badu her fourth Grammy in 2003.

Badu’s Window Seat lyrics are just as powerful as the impromptu music video is itself. At the end of the video, when she’s already naked and exhibiting her numerous tattoos, there is the sound of a gun shot as she falls to the ground, and the narration reads–

They feel most comfortable in groups, less guilt to swallow. They are us, this is what we have become, afraid to respect the individual. A single person within our circumstance can move one to change, to love ourself, to evolve.

Take a look at this revolutionary video and tell us how you feel.