Erykah Badu Is The New Face Of Givenchy

R&B star Erykah Badu has been named the new face of fashion house Givenchy. The singer will front the luxury label’s upcoming 2014 spring campaign. The company’s creative director, Riccardo Tisci, has praised Badu for her unique style, insisting she was an obvious choice for the new collection, which boasts a combination of African and Japanese influences.

 

Tisci tells Style.com, “Erykah, she’s an icon – come on! What I want to do with my advertising campaign is spread the love. Already now it’s been three seasons that I’ve been using people that express something – they are great artists, or beautiful women, or stylish women, or models that I really believe in. It’s kind of a family portfolio.”
He adds, “She’s (Badu) one of the most stylish women I’ve met in my life.”
Tisci’s decision to hire Badu comes hot on the heels of criticism that the fashion world’s top designers are not employing as many models of color for runway shows and ad campaigns.

Tisci insists Givenchy’s latest spokesmodel will hopefully make it clear that his company prides itself in working with women of all ethnicities.

He explains, “At the end of the day, why are not so many black girls or Latin girls in shows (sic) when you have an American president who is black? When I see this happening, it’s quite sad, I think. People can be so avant-garde, so advanced, but actually not, because people are still making differences between skin color.”
 

 Eben Gregory



Erykah Badu Calls Drake Out, Says He Must Respond to Kendrick Lamar

R&B veteran Erykah Badu is showing her love for music goes far beyond crooning by encouraging Young Money's Drake to respond to Kendrick Lamar's now-infamous BET Cypher diss.

 

 

Reports SOHH:

 

Although brief with her words, Miss Badu name-dropped Drake to speak up in the name of hip-hop.

"Drake, u gotta come-back boy ... This HipHop.," she tweeted October 4. (Erykah Badu's Twitter)

After mounted speculation, a teaser of K. Dot's BET Cypher rhymes surfaced online this week and showed him going directly at Drizzy.
 

The 2013 BET Hip-Hop Awards were taped in Atlanta last weekend, and will air on the network in two weeks. One of the most talked about moments during the annual show came from the always entertaining cyphers. TDE shook things up with a lineup of Jay Rock, ScHoolboy Q, Ab-Soul, newest signee Isaiah Rashad, and Kendrick Lamar. With his "Control" verse still a hot topic months later, Kendrick used his camera time to cleverly send a jab at Drake. Over Mobb Deep's "Shook Ones Part. II," Kendrick raps from a spectators angle using Drizzy's Nothing Was the Same album title as a base for his verbal attack. "Yeah...and nothing's been the same since they dropped "Control"/ And tucked a sensitive rapper back in his Pajama Clothes/ Ha-ha jokes on you, high-five.....I'm bulletproof/ Your sh*ts a never penetrate, pin the tail on the donkey boy you been a fake...." Catch the full cypher during the 2013 BET Hip-Hop Awards when it airs on Tuesday, October 15 at 8 p.m. EST. (Miss Info TV)

Recently, Cash Money Records boss Baby downplayed the likelihood of the Young Money stud targeting him on his new "The Language" track.

Baby heard the speculation, but he doesn't think that Kendrick was Drake's intended target. "Drake do what he do. He really slick with whatever he do. He makes you think. But I didn't think he put no energy into that," he said on Wednesday (September 25) when he appeared on "RapFix Live." "Kendrick the homey, I ain't got nothin' but love and respect for Kendrick. Top Dawg is one of my best friends, so I would never want to see us condone that," Birdman said acknowledging TDE's CEO. "That ain't what this about." (MTV)

Drake recently shared some thoughts on the buzz Kendrick ignited and why his main objective did not make sense to him.

"That ['Control'] verse was a moment to talk about. Are you listening to it now, though?," he asked, hushing all 850 attendees at NYU's Skirball Center, including Wilson. Drake continued: "He didn't come in there on some wild, 'I'm in New York, fuck everybody.' I almost wish he had come in there on that shit because I kind of lost a little bit of respect for the sentiment of the verse," Drake said. "If it's really 'fuck everybody' then it needs to be 'fuck everybody'. It can't just be halfway." (Miss Info TV)

In a recently released Billboard cover story, the Toronto native downplayed Lamar's line about murdering him lyrically.

"It just sounded like an ambitious thought to me. That's all it was. I know good and well that Kendrick's not murdering me, at all, in any platform. So when that day presents itself, I guess we can revisit the topic." (Billboard)