Advertisement

Music

Erykah Badu is unhappy with the Flaming Lips

All seemed well in Flaming Lips land when we spoke to frontman Wayne Coyne for NOW’s NXNE cover feature, but the band has since become a lightning rod for controversy.

It all stems from a purportedly unapproved, prematurely released cut of their video for The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, featuring Erykah Badu and her very naked, very glitter-covered sister Nayrok. A full on Twitter-fight has erupted between the strong-personalitied Coyne and Badu, and like most beefs that unfold through cyberspace, neither side has come off particularly well.

Speaking over the phone to Coyne from his Oklahoma City compound last Wednesday, the eccentric psych-rocker had nothing but good things to say about Badu. Just a day after filming at home with the soul star, Coyne was optimistic about both the video and their collaboration in general. And he already had plans to edit and release the clip as soon as he could.

“The song we did with her for the Heady Fwends album that came out on Record Store Day, that song got the most response,” he said. “It’s just such a great song, and she’s just fantastic.”

“We did the filming for the video yesterday, and we’re going to try to get it out by Thursday or Friday.”

The NSFW video appeared on Pitchfork last Friday as planned. The colourful, slow-motion clip matches the deliberate space-soul of the song with glitter, blood, fake semen and liberal amounts of nudity, apparently from Badu’s sister Nayrok (who happens to look a lot like her).

The next day, the video was hastily switched to private, the only explanation a tweet from Wayne Coyne: “Sorry!!Sorry!!! Sorry!!!! Video First Time Ever I Saw Your Face is temporarily taken down…should be back up Monday!!”

Though there were no reasons given for pulling the video at the time, an official statement from Coyne/Flaming Lips appeared on Badu’s website (easily authenticated by the liberal use of exclamation points):

“The video link that was erroneously posted on Pitchfork by the Flaming Lips of the Music Video ‘The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face’, which features Erykah Badu, is unedited and unapproved.. Sorry!! We, the Flaming Lips, accept full responsibility for prematurely having Pitchfork post it. It has outraged and upset a segment of fans and we apologize if we offended any viewers!!! This is a Flaming Lips video which features Erykah Badu and her sister Nayrok and is not meant to be considered an Erykah Badu or Nayrok statement, creation, or approved version.”

That obviously didn’t placate Badu, who posted a long 140-character-restriction-obliterating response to Coyne on her own Twitter account.

In it, she accuses Coyne of posting the video, “a poor excuse for shock and nudity that sends a convoluted message that passes as art (to some),” without sending her even a rough edit to approve. She goes on to claim that the more risqué elements of the video were performed not by her, but by her “much more liberal” sister Nayrok, with the promise that it would be tastefully edited together with her own fully-clothed parts. Though she admits Coyne told her the concept of the video and filmed it with her consent, she says she “never would have approved that tasteless, meaningless, shock motivated video.”

Ending her lengthy rant, she tells Coyne to “KiSS MY Glittery ASS.”

Coyne’s response, a picture delivered via his Twitter photo sharing site, doesn’t exactly carry the same weighty tone.

The dialogue continues on both accounts, each side firing at the other and retweeting fan responses. Badu even goes so far as to tweet at Coyne’s wife: “hi was wondering when u were gonna sober up and say somethin.your husbands an ass and u know it-tell the truth.Do not lie.”

All known versions of the video have since been removed from YouTube.

We think it’s fair to say we won’t be seeing a guest appearance from Badu at the Flaming Lips’ Yonge-Dundas Square NXNE performance next Saturday.

Advertisement

Exclusive content and events straight to your inbox

Subscribe to our Newsletter

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

By signing up, I agree to receive emails from Now Toronto and to the Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.