For HEROINE 12, Erykah Badu has sat down with Junglepussy for an in-depth interview, and we have taken out snippets of our favourite parts.
Discussing bold lyrics, feminine fire, new pussy, and the incredible work that they have both done for women of colour throughout their entire careers, Erykah Badu and Junglepussy have sat down for a two-way interview with each other first featured on Hero Magazine.
Here are our favourite parts below:
Erykah Badu: You know when I first reached out to you, do you remember?
Junglepussy: I remember because I was in the back of a dollar van on my way to the train station and I was getting all these text messages from my friends and I’m like, “What is going on? I’m in the back of a dollar van and Erykah Badu has just discovered my work?” [laughs]
EB: The video I was introduced to was ‘Cream Team’. It was super graphic, sexy, beautiful and strong and the main line I remember is, “Hustle, hustle that pussy muscle.” For the people that don’t have a pussy or don’t understand what that means, can you explain what hustling a pussy muscle entails?
J: [It’s] using all you have within – the pussy muscle hustle. Literally I would feel like I could form something just by the power of my pussy, I can build something just from my inner strength.
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EB: Your feminine fire.
J: Yeah. Me flexing it, using it like, “I can give it to you if I want to but I don’t even have to.” It has power and it has these functions on its own without any other party being involved.
Watch ‘Cream Team’ below.
EB: What first took me were the lyrics, they were bold, explicit and taboo. We hadn’t really started embracing the pussy yet, that was the very beginning of that feminine energy, power and movement. It was starting to bubble up. Visually, I saw you in a bathing top and it was just some real hood, raw –
J: Pouring milk on myself…
EB: – grimy… milk on the titties – it was some very grimy stuff. It was like you couldn’t prepare yourself, you just have to see it. Then what you’ve seen can’t be un-seen. It was before Megan Thee Stallion and all of the other artists who are now in front of that culture, y’know? What do they call it? Stripper culture? What do you think about that term?
J: I don’t like that term because when the guys do it they don’t call it – I mean I guess they do say hustler rap – like it’s a guy who’s got hustle and raps about that experience with his music, but I don’t know. I feel like they just don’t even know what to do with all of these different expressions from all of these different kinds of women so they’re like, “Well all of them used to do this so let’s just say it’s that,” but it’s just too dynamic, it’s too complex to even put that on it. Even with Cream Team, people expected me to keep doing that and I was like, “It was just some trial and error, this is not all I have to offer, like damn y’all.” That’s a part of the journey, it’s fine. I’m happy to see the way it all turned out.
EB: I want to ask you, why Junglepussy? Because for me, New Pussy would be a great moniker because new pussy is always the best pussy.
J: Right [laughs]. I wish I’d thought of New Pussy first, damn. So the jungle really came from a sweater I thrifted. There was a time, and it’s gonna sound loopy but there was a leopard print shortage. I graduated high school at sixteen, right, that was in 2008 and when I was starting to go to FIT [Fashion Institute of Technology] I wanted to wear – I loved leopard print because I was looking back to the 80s, the punk rock stuff.
Watch Erykah Badu on Tiny Desk below.
For the full interview between the two artists, head on over to Hero.
