The public’s perception of Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne is typically that of a selfless, peace-loving everyday man just trying to be everybody’s friend. A read through “Staring At Sound: The True Story of Oklahoma’s Fabulous Flaming Lips” by Jim Derogatis doesn’t exactly disprove this, but it does reveal his mischievous, insensitive, and sometimes manipulative side (there are reasons besides lack of success after all that have caused past members like Richard English, Jonathan Donahue, and Ronald Jones to quit the band).
That side came out bigtime yesterday when Erykah Badu revealed her outrage over Coyne’s apparently premature release of the now infamous clip for The Flaming Lips collaboration with Badu, “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.” Released last Friday, the clip featured a series of slow motion shots of Erykah Badu’s sister Nayrok being smattered with glitter, blood, and white frosting.
Despite Badu’s previous use of nudity in her video for “Window Seat,” it seemed like an odd move for her to be a part of something so sensationalist.
Well it would appear that Badu is fuming over the situation. In a lengthy Twitter post that stretches over to Twitlonger.com, Badu lashes out in great detail.
Perhaps, next time u get an occasion to work with an artist who respects your mind/art, you should send at least a ROUGh version of the video u PLAN to release b4 u manipulate or compromise the artist’s brand by desperately releasing a poor excuse for shock and nudity that sends a convoluted message that passes as art( to some)…You obviously have a misconception of who I am artistically. I don’t mind that but…By the way you are an ass.
There’s a lot more here. What ultimately spurred a reaction from Coyne, though, was her sign-off in which she said, “These things have been said out of necessity. And if you don’t like it you can KiSS MY Glittery ASS. O and Nayrok told me to tell u to kiss her ass too. Almost forgot. Peace.”
Coyne jokingly responded head-on with this:
Hey @fatbellybella I kissed it!!!! Thanks!!!!!!moby.to/c062tv
— Wayne Coyne (@waynecoyne) June 6, 2012
After that, man, it’s hard to keep track. Both artists begin responding to and retweeting various followers condoning or opposing the video, while little snipes and jokes continuously poke through the mix, one in which Badu says “Wayne’s old ass needs this.” That’s when Wayne’s wife Michelle enters the mix followed by a rebuttal by Badu.
Wayne has the ass of a 26 yr old&would never be 6hrs late for a shoot. @fatbellybella @sonicviolence @pitchforkmedia @waynecoyne
— MichelleMartin-Coyne (@mzmartincoyne) June 7, 2012
Wayne taunts back with a response from Badu where she also refutes Michelle’s claims about her husband’s ass:
@waynecoyne again, you’re welcomed. You Enjoy it. People need to see the greed up close. AAAAnd you DO NOT have the ass of 26 year old.
— ErykahBadoula (@fatbellybella) June 7, 2012
Check out the Twitter accounts for Erykah Badu, Nayrok Baud, Wayne Coyne, and Michelle Coyne for further investigations, which involve a lot of follower retweets, including one by Janelle Monáe. It gets real fun — case in point:
#AssOfA26YearOld @ReverendJustito @waynecoyne @fatbellybella twitter.com/mzmartincoyne/…
— MichelleMartin-Coyne (@mzmartincoyne) June 7, 2012
The video has been pulled from YouTube, but we found a clip here of someone filming their computer showing it in case you haven’t seen it yet.
The Flaming Lips/Erykah Badu — “The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face”
June 07, 2012 at 1:20 pm, It’s Time For Another Twitter Battle: Erykah Badu Versus The Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne And His Ass said:
[...] can see more of their tweets here, or by checking them on a Twitter. Also, below is the video that has since been removed from [...]
June 07, 2012 at 8:20 pm, PsychEx FutureHeart said:
Nobody knows what really went down except for Wayne and Erykah… and they can't agree either..
That said, the above post is heavily weighed towards Badu's side of the story.
The full context of the feud, plus the actual video (not a bootleg of a computer screen) – as well as a naked photo of Wayne so you can judge for yourself if his ass is 26 – is posted at http://www.facebook.com/TheFutureHeart.
For the record, both The Flaming Lips and Wayne earnestly apologized and took full responsibilty for the video prior Badu's rant yesterday. He only made a joke of it when she told him to kiss "KiSS MY Glittery ASS".
It's misleading for Badu to pretend she didn't know what she was getting into (or to leave out that she disrespected him from the get go by apparently showing up to the shoot 6 hours late, on Wayne's dime.
The imagery in this video is basically in line with every other the Lips have made since 2009 (or for that matter, Wayne's tweets). It's hard to fathom how this new video could take Badu by surprise if she had seen them. The nude-overload music video for "Watching the Planets" for instance shows a crowd of people attack Wayne, rip off his clothes until he is fully naked (with all his body parts clearly showing) and carry him away as his penis wiggles to and fro – all while he sings the last two-plus verses of the song. They then shove him in the vaginalistic hole of a giant furry ball.
Wayne also gave an explicit preview of this video to Badu – and all his followers – when he tweeted before the shoot, "Makin some fake semen for Erykah Badu @fatbellybella video shoot Sunday!" on May 24th…..As the old saying goes, "there's only so many ways you can make fake semen look classy…"
Additionally, last week – after the video shoot but before the the video upload (and thus backlash against Badu) – the singer praised the video on twitter:
"it looks beautiful. Nayrok ( lil sis) looks amazing. U are a Tru visionary.. My fav is the glitter."
"Those nude photos posted by Wayne (flaming lips) are of the beautiful Nayrok my lil sister and bestee…Video looks cosmic."
She also happily anticipated playing Houston's Free Press with them, tweeting "Badu and flaming lips in Houston sat.
"
It's unclear how Badu acted around the Lips at that show (by which time the video had gone viral, including a very visible posting at http://perezhilton.com/2012-06-02-flaming-lips-erykah-badu-the-first-time-i-ever-saw-your-face). Rumor has it Wayne watched her from the side of the stage and handed her a bouquet of flowers afterwards. Lips recording partner Matt Duckworth claims Badu, "was jumpin around on stage with [Wayne] in Htown. guess it made her seem cool then…"
Curiously, Badu's tirade and insults at Wayne were preceded by her essentially polling her twitter followers. First she tweeted:
"Official Flaming Lips Vid discussion. How does it make u feel? Ascetically, What does it make u fear? Anger? Joy? Freedom? Disgust? Discuss" Then she asked, "What if the video has no meaning at all? Now how do u feel? Re: flaming lips/ badu".
The reason she waited to see how her fans reacted before ranting and insulting Wayne is unclear. The video was uploaded last Friday and not until yesterday did she give any public sign of objecting to the video or how Wayne handled the shoot.
It's understandable why she would be annoyed if it was released without her approving the finished video, though unclear when her opinion of the work changed (if it did in fact change – in which case those earlier tweets were masking her true feelings with public praise for the project) and what motivated her to react with personal insults at both Wayne (i.e. he is an "an ass," "old," "self-serving") and his wife, Michelle.
Could it be to serve her own image as a spiritually-aware, artistic-integrity, feminist? Note she uses the word "art' (or variants like "artist") 14 times in her 3:33 twitlonger statement (included the crux of her argument – that this video "compromise[d her artist] brand"), and climaxes on the line "as a woman I feel violated and underestimated." Whether it was intentional or not on Badu's behalf, some of the media coverage of the feud, as well tweets reacting to her (including some by Janelle Monáe) overlooks she wasn't asked to do anything Wayne wouldn't do himself to portray her as a hero standing up for women and artists with loftier intentions.
The irony (or clever marketing) is that insulting Wayne is getting Erykah more attention than any of her "art" has since Malaysia banned her use of Allah body art this past February.
http://www.google.com/trends/?q=badu&ctab=0&geo=all&date=mtd&sort=0
Who's using who, what should we do, well you can't be a pimp and a prostitute too…
Maybe she was mislead. Maybe Wayne did go about it all wrong. Maybe he is an ass. Maybe she's the self-serving one, spinning her fans outrage to reclaim the repute she lost in some people's eyes after "Window Seat" at Wayne's expense. Or maybe it's that she just really didn't get what she was getting into – after all, as the song goes, "Wayne, I don't understand" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-2ZeTIPkMY.
November 09, 2012 at 10:35 pm, Troy Nickie said:
how is it misleading to think that you would get a chance to see the version they are planning on putting out before its relased so u can make ur own suggestions.. im sure it was assumed by badu that her sisters pussy would be edited out and only upper body shown..the argument has nothing to do with the artistic theme but with the final artistic direction…
June 15, 2012 at 10:40 am, These ARE the droids you’re looking for: My lunch with Japandroids | Death and Taxes said:
[...] [...]
June 29, 2012 at 5:18 pm, The Flaming Lips get in the ‘Guinness Book’; release new track | Death and Taxes said:
[...] to land a spot in the famous “Guinness World Records” book, the equally ambitious Flaming Lips managed to actually land a spot in its pages by outdoing Jay-Z‘s previously held record for [...]