Open Your Mind : Erykah Badu

Open Your Mind : Pt. 1

Erykah Badu

Music is highly influential to a way of thinking and a way of life. I applaud my Mother for exposing me to artists who crave to make a difference in the world and share knowledge such as; Michael Jackson, Erykah Badu, Lauryn Hill, and Jill Scott. There’s more artists, but as I grew older, these artist really stood out to me and help mold me into the free spirit person I am today.

Erykah Badu taught me to enlighten myself in ways I could discover before. Listening to Badu on a different level was like a ripple effect of learning more of the unknown. Well let me break it down for you. In Erykah Badu’s live recording of Baduizm, she takes a moment and speak with the audience. She asks them if they knew what a Cypher was. I know the first thing that comes to your mind is a group of rappers freestyle in a circle. Fun Fact: In the Nations of Gods and Earths, or the Five Percenters, the “Mecca” is Harlem, New York with is a cultural influence for Hip Hop. Also, a cypher is represented as a circle which consist of 360 degrees. Badu mentions in her song “On & On” that her “Cypher keeps moving like a Rolling Stone”, she explains how the Cypher represents herself, or the atoms in her body and the “Rolling Stone” represents the Earth. Badu further explains how the atoms in our body rotates on the same axis as the Earth, making us one with the Earth which makes us able to call ourselves the Earth.

That made me think about my research on the Nation of Gods and Earths. The NGE, or the Five percenters teaches that black people are the original people of the planet Earth, and therefore they are the fathers (“Gods”) and, mothers (“Earths”) of civilization. Get the connection? Well to further explain where the name “Five Percenters” come from. There’s Ten percent of people in the world that know the truth in existence and possess knowledge and they keep Eighty- Five percent of the world in an oblivion and under their control, so the remaining five percent that know the truth and are determined to enlighten the rest. I know reading all of this is mind blowing at first because you realize how true it is. If you don’t see the evidence, notice how the media bashes and exploit any artist that tries to liberate the minds of the world. Coincidence? I think not.

Back to Erykah, You’ll always see Badu wear a funny looking cross. This figure is called an Ankh.

Badu explains how the Ankh is a Kemetic symbol found in the tombs of Kemet, whereas Egypt was formally known as Kemet. The Ankh represents life, the rounded piece represents the womb, the staff piece represents the male principle, or the penis, and the connecting piece inbetween represents the fallopian tubes. Each piece is apart of the completion of life, let’s go back.

A Cypher is represented as a circle and a circle is 360 degrees. Atoms make up who we are, meaning each atom, each 360 degrees makes up our lives. So if each piece of the Ankh represents completion and life, each piece of the Ankh is equivalent to 120. 120 + 120 + 120= 360, completion and life. The Five percenters also use Supreme Numbers and according to the Supreme numbers Cypher, or Zero is also the completion of a circle consisting of 360 degrees (120 degrees of Knowledge, 120 degrees of Wisdom, and 120 degrees of Understanding). Knowledge, Wisdom, and Understanding are the first three numbers of the Supreme Numbers. Knowledge is the accumulation of facts through observing, learning, and respecting. Knowledge is the foundation, whereas Wisdom is the vital building block of life. Understanding is the addition of Knowledge and Wisdom (1+2=3), complete comprehension.

Congratulations, you did Math. But wait there’s more, in the Holy Bible, Proverbs 1:7 it says the fear (Respect, in other translations) of the Lord is the beginning of Knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction. I’ll just leave that there.

What Badu taught me is that Knowledge is power, but don’t use that power to oppress, use it to

liberate.

Source(s): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five-Percent_Nation ; https://www.bible.com/bible/1/pro.1 ; http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread565324/pg1

#knowledge #wisdom #Erykah #Badu #Music