Hello Erykah! This is Augusts1. I want you to know that your management is taking a major amount of time(two & a half months) to reward us w/incentives on your Fancorps.com site. The first time they put stuff in the general store it took them months as well and then they only put in 15 items! There are 1500 members on your Fancorps site although there are 500 who have enough points to buy items in the store. But only 15 items at a time? There should always be stuff available! It's like working at a job & having to wait to get your paycheck for more than a month. Your management is taking advantage of the situation & not letting you know what's going on. I don't think this is how you would want your fans to be treated is it? I certainly hope it isn't.

I love your music & appreciate so much your energy & light, so I enjoy promoting you & your music but this situation is just wrong and you have started losing people. We are getting very discouraged. I've emailed the team leader numerous times about this & all she has to say is 'we're still waiting on management & our hands are tired.' I don't want to get her in trouble since it's your management who is controlling this. With how you present political & social injustices on your latest album I find it hard to believe that you would allow this to go on. Basically, it's a sweatshop that's been created in a virtual setting. I've gone the proper route for months now & this situation is still not resolved. So this was the only way I knew how to get through to you directly, since I know you frequent this site on occasion.

Please feel free to go on the site & ask any of the top team people, they will know what's going on. I'm the third highest in ranking on the site as far as points go & I've taken this on as a project. There are a few other issues as well, so this isn't the only thing that has happened. Anyway, I hope to hear back from you & that this is rectified soon. Take care Erykah, you are a blessing to us all & we love you & your wonderful music. Feel free to contact me here or on your fancorps site.

I definately agree with this post.
Its been a while since we have received incentive to go on,
i am personally loosing interest and its just because we
dont really get any awards for it.
I respect people who are doing it regardless,
but especially for new members it would be something to hold onto.

keep it solid steel,
chille

I agree I started a while ago and I was getting advice from fatima1970 who was very helpful. but after awhile I started to realize there was nothing in it for the supporters but every now and then I still log on to do a assignment to show my support.

myspace.com/boxinggoddess
What's really hood bitch?

What is this that you all are talking about?
Awards...Assignments...virtual sweatshops...top team members...points...3rd highest ranking...members having something to hold on to?

Sounds like a Multilevel Marketing Cyber Audio Cult?!?!(j/k)

nah but foreal...what is this actually?

peace
HIM
www.PlazaMelodic.com
"Lo-Fi Holiday" Now Available!!
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/lo-fi-holiday/id985794237
https://plazamelodic.bandcamp.com/album/lo-fi-holiday
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most definitely not the sweatshops. that's just ridiculous...

but I've been waiting for those shirts (y'know, the one that says "I'm talking bout the dirty cops, they're the ones ya need to watch" w/ a pic of fred hampton)...

peace after revolution

It's a fansite for Erykah Badu where we do online & physical promotions/marketing of her music. We are awarded points for the tasks that we do and then can buy items w/our points that they provide for us(which they are being extremely stingy in giving us).

I am posting this here because Erykah needs to know what's going on w/her site since her management doesn't seem to be communicating to her. If they were, we wouldn't be dealing with this mess since I'm sure Erykah wouldn't put up with it.

I do agree with this post as well ! It becomes ridiculous when you are promised things over and over and nothing seems to follow thru. I think the biggest problem is promising EARNED tickets and people driving from out of town just to find out that there on NO tickets at the box office. That did not just happen once it happened to a couple of people. Not only that but having contest people completing the task in the contest and then no one wins because no one evaluated who won ! But we did the work just no reward. Personally I would promote for Erykah for free but I do not appreciate people saying they are going to do something and they don't it is a lack of consideration and responsibility.

Peace Augusts1,

Thank you for addressing this issue with us! I apologies that we haven’t been able to fulfill these FanCorps rewards in a timely manner. You guys deserve it as you went over and above any fan by promoting Erykah on and offline.

Please bare with us as we solve this issue within the next few days. We will post a response immediately.

Sincerely,
BaduWorld, Inc.

Thank you to everyone who has responded in support, I greatly appreciate it & we all will benefit by standing up for what we deserve.

Peace to you Baduworld, thank you for acknowledging this post and I do hope we will see a response & our rewards in a few days and that this isn't just the usual rhetoric to keep us 'pacified'.

Does Erykah know about this post? She needs to know directly what is going on and not just through management, who are the real problem. Please let Erykah know about this post so she can read it herself. Thank you for your help. Look forward to hearing from you shortly.

>Thank you to everyone who has responded in support, I greatly
>appreciate it & we all will benefit by standing up for what we
>deserve.
>
>Peace to you Baduworld, thank you for acknowledging this post
>and I do hope we will see a response & our rewards in a few
>days and that this isn't just the usual rhetoric to keep us
>'pacified'.
>
>Does Erykah know about this post? She needs to know directly
>what is going on and not just through management, who are the
>real problem. Please let Erykah know about this post so she
>can read it herself. Thank you for your help. Look forward to
>hearing from you shortly.

No problem Augustus1....


myspace.com/boxinggoddess

hello,

first I wanna thank you AUGUSTS1.
I totally agree with your post.
It's great to know that there is somebody how cares.

some note for the management, baduworld or maybe personally to you ERYKAH:
I guess if you let people do orders in the name of erykah badu, it's only fair if the people get the things which promised.

I'm anxious to the reaction of that post. We will see.

If we want a new system we have something to do for it.
Peace after revolution.

Love, JE

Peace,

As promised, here is an update:

After addressing this issue today, we learned that there has been a communication breakdown as to who was responsible for purchasing and providing FanCorps Members incentives and rewards.
(This is not a free service and someone has to pay to manufacture these items.)

We have acknowledged and solved the flow of communication moving forward. We have taken steps to 1) offer exclusive items immediately from Erykah’s personal merchandise inventory and 2) requested a budget to manufacture new items that will be added through 2009.

When BaduWorld first learned that the FanCorps General Store needed items around the release of New Amerykah, we acted fast to accommodate. Erykah signed dozens of collectable silk screen posters valued at $200+, as well as CD’s and Vinyl for the street teamers. Erykah used products that she had to personally pay for to make sure something was online – acknowledging that the general store had nothing available. At that time, BaduWorld & FanCorps were under the assumption more promo items were on the way, unfortunately this wasn’t the case. And all the products were snapped up pretty much immediately by only a select few.

Moving forward, we will have several items posted in the ‘general store’ within a day or so. Once they are added, we will send out an alert to all FanCorps members and will post a message on this Okayplayer discussion board. Hundreds of Fan Corps members will have the option to trade in points for some very cool and very exclusive Badu merch.

Over the next several months BaduWorld will add several new products as incentives to help promote the upcoming release of ‘New Amerykah, Part II, Return of the Ankh’. Along with that, we will add more personalized autographed items for the top earners as they become available to us.

We will have another update in the next few days announcing the addition of the first set of items.

Thank you for your understanding,

BaduWorld, Inc.

Wanted to thank you Paul for getting the incentives up in the fancorps general store quickly. Noticed it when I logged on this morning. It's great to know you are responding to our concerns and taking this seriously. You're attentiveness is much appreciated.

RE: Ticket Promotion // Issues
During the 52 City Vortex World Tour, BaduWorld gave away 30+ pair of tickets to FanCorps members. This was facilitated and distributed by Motown Records. It was very unfortunate to find out a few winners didn’t get their tickets the night of one of the shows. The very next day, we offered more tickets to future events and apologized profusely – as this was something totally out of our control at the time and being that it was a tour we weren’t able to go back in time and fix it. If you were one of these winners this happened too (I believe there were 4 total?) and you weren’t notified by us with an apology and future passes, please contact us at info@baduworld.com and we will address this with you directly. Once again, this only happened to a few winners names during the early part of this first time promotion.

RE: Management
Erykah Badu manages herself. Her ‘team’ is BaduWorld.

Thank you Baduworld for the quick update reply, it is greatly appreciated. I can understand why there would be a miscommunication since there are so many people involved in the mngmt. of an artist.

I happened to be one of the two people the ticket situation happened to on the US tour. The four people you are referring to happened on the European tour but they were notified before their respective concerts. The two of us who's tickets weren't available on the US tour were sent a poster autographed by Erykah & the poster artist Emek as well as an autographed copy of New Amerykah. Passes for a future show would be great as well since I didn't get to see Erykah this tour.

As far as Erykah managing herself, isn't the William Morris Agency involved in managing Badu on some level? I know that when you email the Baduworld site there is an autoresponse that informs that you must email William Morris Agency regarding offers for performances. So how do they figure into the picture?

I look forward to seeing items in the general store in a few days. And once again thank you for your responding so quickly and wanting to make this situation right. It will make for a happy team!

I would LOVE to get gear off your fancorps site but it's always empty (boo hoo) so I am just waiting patiently......

Peace

You're right.Nothing has changed since the other "incidents".
I love and respect Mrs Badu but her management people should do more.
By the way,I would like to thank you August1 for this and I hope that things will soon get better.

Love and respect,

Ladyjazzmatazz.

Again, thanks to those who have responded here in support. There are many who didn't bother who will benefit from this action as well. So I greatly appreciate those of you who have taken your time out to voice your opinion to help with this issue!

Augusts1 is speaking what all of us (members of FanCorps.com) are feelng about our hard work and effort and how promised incentives never materialized. The few items that were added to the General Store were in limited quantity. It has been frustrating for quite some time but I, like Augusts1 and many other members, continue to do the assignments, out of our love and respect for Ms. Badu. Many of us dug into our pockets (in these tough financial times) in order to complete some assignments. The site has lost many members because of the way we've been treated. Augusts1 comparison to a sweat shop could not be more on point. The natives are restless, and have been for awhile. I love the site and hope that more people join versus jumping ship. We can do better. Thanks Augusts for championing this cause for all 1,500+ members.

I agree with most of what's been said in this entire post. I wish that more things had been in the store much earlier (and it sounds like more is coming soon).
BUT: COME ON PEOPLE, we're not in sweatshop conditions. It is important to think about the work you've done and what you deserve for it. HOWEVER, it is completely diminishing to the people who do work in sweatshops who make most of the things that you probably use in your daily life. Think about it: the alarm clock you wake up to. your bed. bedding. where was your breakfast food produced and in what conditions? what about the clothes you wear? I guarantee that we are not going through the emotional and physical pains that it takes to work in a sweatshop, maquiladora or farms in our fancorps street team work. In fact, there were 4 farmworkers in California this summer who died of over-exposure to heat. WE ARE NOT IN A SWEATSHOP.

Peace and I'd love to start a conversation about this if y'all want...q

J. Strauss, I hear what you are repeating but this is about how we feel when the lack of rewards has gone on for almost 3 months. It's about feeling we are being taken advantage of, end of story. The term 'sweatshop' was used to get the point across that we feel we're being used. I hope you can finally understand this.

If you had said and others had repeated "I feel taken advantage of", which is what your feeling, that's completely legit and I'm glad you're keeping it real. But then don't compare it to how sweatshop workers feel, cause I would bet a whole lot that there's a lot more feelings and that the degree to which they would feel taken advantage of is completely uncomparable. I mean, come on: much of the work that we do allows us to sit on our computer and post banners or make banners or review Erykah's show, all of which are not strenuous at all.
I'm not at all meaning to say that it's not an issue, but I'm also not considering Saddam's regime better than the US invasion, even though the US invasion was completely immoral, illegal and unecessary by all means.

...Not trying to start beef, just a conversation about linguistics, which i think is a major issue of the new millenium...

peace

I do see your point. But it's really a matter of symantics and different definitions of the word 'sweatshop'. And obviously my use of the word helped to accomplish the goal I had in mind for this post. So that is what really matters.

Oops, that should be 'semantics', hehe.

Thanks for your support Fatima!

Peace

Just wanted you guys to know that we added a bunch of products to the FanCorps store. Please bare with us as we get the plans together for the new products to be ordered soon.

Thanks!

Thanks for letting us all know. I saw the items the day they were posted in the general store. Thanks for following through and getting the items up so quickly!

Hey Baduworld,

Just a quick note to let you know the items in the general store are WAY overpriced. 20,000 pts. for a poster that was 800 pts.(I bought one) the last time the store was stocked? Ridiculous! I've only acquired around 5600 total pts. since joining fancorps 9 months ago(2/15/08), so pricing items at 20,000 is absurd. We also want t-shirts & hoodies too please!

Greetings Family,

Been waiting 2 C what VISUAL artistry Mama Erykah will bring to this track (one of my favorite tracks from 4th World War) OKAY I'm fronting...I love all the tracks from 4th World War. Has any one heard or seen anything. I don't watch TV or listen to the RADIO....so everything comes to me by word of mouth. Send me a link if you find something.

p.s. It would be real fly if there was a VIDEO Remix Contest 4 this track. (kinda like the remix contest for REAL THANG). I'm sure it would bring out a lot of creative energy.
"Raise Ur Hands High If You Agree...just say Yes Sir Ree..."

Mama Erykah,
Can't wait for the release of Part II... although a lot of people need 2 put 4th World War on Repeat for a little longer.

Much Light, Family

...for those that recognize the need for ones to be reoriented in the genius of their creativity AND are ready to put some INNER-G into creating a new educational reality for our youth....we need to connect.. MamaSadaqah@HolisticSchoolOfArtsAndSciences.c

I kinda doubt there will be a vid out for Soldier at this point. Part 2 will more than likely be out the early part of next year so I think Erykah's team will be focused on that.

Hey Baduworld,

Haven't heard back from you about the points in the general store. This seriously needs to be addressed. Thank you.