Erykah Badu Fined for Stripping in Video

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Barry Breheisen/ WireImage/Getty Images

R&B singer Erykah Badu’s nude attitude is a costly one: the fact that she got buck booty naked in Dallas’ Dealey Plaza while filming her video for “Window Seat” may not have resulted in the controversy she was looking for. It did, however, result in her being slapped with a $500 fine and six months’ probation.

In the video, shot in the location where President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, Badu sings and simultaneously loses layers of clothes until she’s wearing her birthday suit — and then falls as if she’s been shot to death. Tourists complained to the authorities, and the “On and On” and “Bag Lady” hitmaker was charged with disorderly conduct.

Badu (née Erica Wright) has been known for pushing the artistic edges since the 1997 release of her first album, Baduizm. This video, which she claims was “shot guerrilla-style,” was to be a “protest” against “groupthink” and about “liberating yourself,” she says.

But after her disorderly-conduct charge for being naked in public, it was about why 1.7 million people downloaded the video from YouTube: to see the Grammy winner’s nicely shaped butt cheeks.

Top that, Lady Gaga!