Erykah Badu Sees Good In Hitler, Loves What Bill Cosby Has 'Done For The World'

Erykah Badu is under fire this week for some controversial comments she made about comedy star Bill Cosby and Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

On Wednesday, Jan. 24, Vulture published an interview with the R&B superstar where she talked about her enduring legacy in the music industry, making new music, why physical albums are better than digital downloads, and which artists she is listening to right now. However, the most memorable snippet of the interview is the part where she talked about being an empath who chooses to see the good in everyone.

Thoughts On Empathy

"I'm a humanist. I see good in everybody. I saw something good in Hitler," the 46-year-old stated. Badu was asked about her links to Louis Farrakhan and his alleged anti-Semitism. The singer, at the time, was called anti-Semitic for refusing to denounce anti-Semitism, a term she said she was not familiar with until it was used to describe her.

Badu added that Hitler was a good painter, an opinion that the interviewer disagreed with. So the singer retracted and said that Hitler had a terrible childhood.

"That means that when I'm looking at my daughter, MarsBadu's daughter with enigmatic rapper Jay Electronica. She also has another daughter, Puma, with the West Coast rapper the D.O.C., I could imagine her being in someone else's home and being treated so poorly, and what that could spawn," she added. "I see things like that. I guess it's just the Pisces in me."

Throughout the interview, Badu insisted that she does not subscribe easily to every idea that the general public agrees with. She said she wants to weigh the issues and arrive to a decision on her own.

On the issue of Cosby, the singer-songwriter said that she loves the comedian and admires the good he has done for the world.

"But if he's sick, why would I be angry with him," she asked. "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."

Cosby has been accused of rape, drug-facilitated sexual assault, and several sexual misconducts. Later this year, he is scheduled to be retried over the assault of a woman in 2004.

Backlash

Unsurprisingly, Badu has received intense backlash for her most recent comments. Many criticized the artist for being insensitive to the many people whose loved ones suffered through the nightmare that was the holocaust.

Others brought up a previous comment that the singer made about young girls and sexual harassment.

Many of her fans came to her rescue, saying that people did not read past the headlines or totally missed Badu's point.

Badu responded to the outrage by saying that she welcomes the dialogue.

Tags

Erykah Badu, Bill Cosby