Jill Scott and Erykah Badu's Verzuz Battle: The Feeling of Home and Lessons Learned
Jill Scott and Erykah Badu on stage at the 2018 Essence Festival. Image via Erika Goldring of Getty Images.
When I think of home, I think of the smell of my favorite comfort food. I hear the sound of 70s, 80s and 90s R&B playing in the background. I see the happiness on my family member’s faces when they see me. Oh, and the hugs? The hugs are filled with warmth, comfort, and peace. The space feels the same way. Of course, there are times where things go a little left (because no one is truly perfect), but there’s a light that shines more often than not.
Home, for me, is also the sound of Jill Scott and Erykah Badu’s voices and the comfort of their words. I grew up to and hold both artists’ music close to my heart. Badu’s “Didn’t Cha Know” and “Bag Lady” were songs that I didn’t understand the full force of until my twenties, even though I was singing along to it as a pre-teen in the early 2000s. Shoot, I was singing “Next Lifetime” in third grade not knowing what she was really talking about. And Jill: her voice sounds like love in its sweetest form. “The Way,” “He Loves Me” (the live version), and “Spring Summer Feeling” bring me so much joy every time I hear them. That comfort isn’t only in their music, but in the way they speak. All of those feelings of home manifested for me in the first women’s Verzuz battle, sponsored by Femme It Forward, via Instagram Live on May 9th.
When Swizz Beatz, Timbaland, and the Verzuz team announced the battle, I read through arguments about who would win. Each side had valid points, But, I couldn’t choose a winner. Like in much of the Verzuz battles, I felt that there would be no definitive winner between the two of them. I was truly there to witness the queens show off their work and enjoy the moment. That view rang true: there were over 750,000 people watching the live at once at its height and over 1 billion impressions online about it.
I was enchanted from the moment I tuned into Jill Scott’s live. Nikki Giovanni’s poetry, the visual artwork, and Jill’s gorgeous smile and voice warmed my heart. When she and Badu finally joined each other on Live, Jill’s hello and the reciprocated energy from Erykah let me know that I was literally going to be at home for the three-hour “battle.” It felt like watching aunties spitting game the entire time. And, even though it was a battle of the music, there was no bad or deeply competitive energy between them. They were both winners.
Queen Latifah, Erykah Badu and Jill Scott at Sugar Water Festival, a festival they founded and toured with from 2005-2006.
Some of my favorite creative lessons from this battle came from their stories. Here are three of them, which all coincide:
Don’t be afraid to begin — it can be a blessing.
Jill Scott dropped knowledge on the live that “You Got Me” was the first song she had ever written. That song became one of The Roots’ biggest singles from their best-selling album, Things Fall Apart. It’s also a GRAMMY-winning song for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group.
Take advantage of opportunities.
The story about how Jill Scott performed “You Got Me” for the first time at The Roots’ concert was amazing. Seeing how Jill’s career catapulted from songwriting and from a performance that she had so much fear about doing is a lesson that great things can happen for you when you take advantage of opportunities, no matter how afraid you are to take them.
Release your work.
Erykah told Jill that she had been sitting on poetry that she doesn’t share. Badu asked how Jill felt comfortable sharing her poetry, and Jill replied that once the words were down on paper, that they were meant to be shared. Those words have to be released for someone to see.
I didn’t want the live to end. I felt at home and I didn’t want my aunties and all of their wisdom and peace to leave us. However, I’m thankful that I’ll have the memories, the videos, and the music to constantly remind me of how monumental the moment was.