Erykah Badu fined $500 for controversial ‘Window Seat’ clip
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Who ever said justice was swift?
It took more than five months, but Erykah Badu is finally paying for her controversial -- or brilliant, depending on who you ask -- video for “Window Seat.”
Badu has paid a $500 fine and will serve six months of probation, a Dallas city spokesman tells the Associated Press.
In the clip, which immediately went viral, she is seen walking the streets of Dallas near the site where JFK was assassinated, slowly stripping; the moment after she takes off her last piece of clothing, the singer is shot by an unseen assassin.
Thanks to a media firestorm and a complaint from a Dallas resident, she was subsequently charged with disorderly conduct, a Class C misdemeanor, for her “disregard to individuals nearby.”
At the height of the controversy, the singer, who is a native of Dallas, Tweeted: “I would never disrespect JFK. his revolutionary thinking is my inspiration. my performance art has been grossly misinterpreted by many.”
“I knew it was a shocking thing that I did,” she told us in an interview earlier this summer about the fallout from the video. “So I did expect some kinda dialogue about it. That’s the point of performance art. There is going to be some kinda dialogue. I didn’t think it would become this …well, yes, I did (laughs). I predicted what would happen. It became clearer and clearer as I shed layers. The next step is assassination of character. That’s exactly what happened.”
-- Gerrick D. Kennedy
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