Where’s the respect?
This isn’t a joke. Wayne Coyne’s twitter feud with Erykah Badu has gone off the rails, and it’s heartbreaking, not just for the participants, but for music fans. Especially women.
To recap, Grammy-winning musician Badu partnered with Flaming Lips to sing “First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” for the Lips album, “Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends.” That’s killer. No worries.
Recently, however, Badu and sister Nayrok joined the Oklahoma psychedelic rock act in Texas to shoot a video for the song, and that’s when things got crazy, even by Flaming Lips standards.
A very public argument erupted over Coyne’s admitted failure to include Badu in the art direction and editing process. Whoops.
The raw video featured a nude Badu and her “body double” sister, writhing in a tub filled with everything from water and glitter to simulated body fluids. To his credit, Coyne quickly apologized for offending fans, and emphasized that the video was a work of Flaming Lips “art,” and not a statement of any kind from the sisters.
Badu, after attempting to reach Coyne by phone, tweeted “I have spoken 2Wayne several times on phone. He has disregarded what he has done & masks it by misleading his fans into thinking he’s innocent,” she explained.
So she went public.
“The exploitation began when he planned to release unauthorized footage and raw nude pics with no warning nor approval...” Badu tweeted.
She also posted an expanded open letter to Wayne, voicing her pain over of personal photos (and the video) of her sister posted online without prior approval. She also told Coyne to kiss her, uh, glittery rear.
Then the gloves came off.
Coyne replied with not one but two Tweets. The first:
The attached photo showed Coyne's glittery lips.
Things so sould have ended there.
He then tweeted another picture, and added, “Yessss!!! Nice a**!!!!”
What followed was even more surreal.
Coyne launched an hours-long Twitter fusillade, both pro and con, of the video, the production, the song, his fans and her fans. He fueled exchanges by retweeting dozens of fans comments. Coyne’s wife and inner circle got in on the action, and the ad hominem attacks insulted Badu’s body and intimated they harbored perhaps uglier things to say … and show.
What doesn’t jibe here is that the sisters were essential to the song and video. But the attacks only took on more momentum from there, as more and more fans dogpiled in the personal attacks of Badu.
By Thursday, Badu had reposted an original long tweet to fans -- and Coyne. In it, she called Coyne “self-serving” and the video “tasteless, meaningless (and) shock motivated.”
Added Badu, “U can't do what ever you want to people and think its okay. … I'm not trying to sale a record. Wayne is. Do the math. …
“If this is Wayne's way, it is wrong. Clearly inappropriate behavior amongst friends/artists with 'mutual' respect. He has none.”
Was Badu naive to assume that she’d be treated with “mutual respect” as an artist? In hindsight, definitely. She trusted a professional colleague. She took a chance. But, to blame her for the result here, to a large degree, is blaming the victim. Nobody deserves to be personally ridiculed and publicly degraded, targeted or bullied. Ever.
Coyne, enough is enough. This isn’t fun and it's definitely not funny.
As a woman (and a fan for as long as I can remember), what you and your inner circle are doing is insulting. It hurts. It really does. Just … stop.
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