view that she's overall in retirement from songwriting mode:


http://www.vulture.com/2018/01/erykah-badu-in-conversation.html?utm_campaign=vulture&utm_source=tw&utm_medium=s1


Vulture: It’s been eight and ten years since your last two studio albums, which were both fairly political. Now we’re here, in this political moment. Are you feeling at all inspired to make new music?


You know what’s funny? I’m thinking about music, but it’s all about tuning forks, singing bowls, bells, drums. I went to South Africa and recorded drums from Soweto, from Johannesburg, just gathering sounds. That’s what I’m interested in right now — sound vibration. If I put out another project, it’ll be like that. Maybe I’m humming or primal wailing or tribal moaning. You know, I haven’t written anything in five years.


Vulture: You mean no new proper songs? You did put out that mixtape a couple years back.


That’s right. If I’m not inspired to write, I don’t. Whether it’s me as a singer or a dancer or a writer or a painter or a filmmaker or on Instagram or a mixtape, everything I do is coming out of a real need. I think Joni Mitchell is the one who said that singing, laughing, and crying come up out of the same need: to get stuff out. I just haven’t had anything to say. I can’t really force it. If I did, what I’d be saying wouldn’t be coming from an honest place. Or maybe I’ve said all the things I feel like saying.