Art & Creativity Quote by Erykah Badu

That “of course” lands like a shrug with teeth. Badu is talking about artistic curiosity - “dabble here and there in different forms of the art” - but the sentence pivots hard into captivity language: “the label has me locked down like a slave.” It’s deliberately abrasive, not a casual metaphor. She’s naming the power imbalance that sits under the glamour of being “signed”: contracts that decide what kind of work counts, when it’s due, and who owns it.

The line works because it stages a fight between identity and product. “Different forms of the art” hints at a wider creative life (performance, acting, community projects, experimentation) while “albums during this time” sounds like an imposed deliverable, a quota. “During this time” implies a sentence to be served. The label isn’t just funding the music; it’s rationing her freedom and narrowing her output into the most marketable container.

Context matters: Badu emerged in an era when neo-soul sold “authenticity” as a brand while the industry tightened control through multi-album deals and long release cycles. For Black women artists especially, the marketplace often rewards a carefully managed persona and punishes deviation. Her language yanks the curtain back on that bargain. She can explore, but only around the edges; the core labor still belongs to the machine. The irony is that the “album,” framed as a creative statement, is also the receipt.