Erykah Badu Calls Out Black Eyed Peas for "Borrowing" Her Video Idea

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Erykah Badu must be blushing right now. Back in 2007, she released a music video for the song "Honey" in which she peruses a record store, pulling iconic records off the racks in which she's worked herself into the cover artwork. Apparently the Black Eyed Peas had a similar idea themselves — eight years later. Oops.

The Peas — sans Fergie — recently released "Yesterday" in honor of their 20th anniversary, their first new music since 2010's The Beginning. It's a throwback to the group's early days, a back-to-basics hip-hop track that pays tribute to some of their biggest influences. The music video is a clever homage of its own, featuring will.i.am, apl.de.ap and Taboo perusing a record store and pulling the records that the song references off the shelves.

Wait, that sounds familiar.
As well it should. The video, which works the Peas into the cover of such classics as It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back and Straight Outta Compton, prominently features one of the same records that "Honey" does, De La Soul's 3 Ft. High and Rising. (A nod to New Amerykah Part One might not have been a bad idea, in hindsight.) It's a cool video, although Badu's covers a broader spectrum of music and also manages to be pretty funny.
The similarities weren't lost on Badu, who took to Twitter on Sunday morning (although, in a classic brush of the shoulder, only to subtweet):

I think THE BLACK EYE PEAS borrowed my idea a Lil lol ... Yesterday by BEP http://t.co/ocbAiNgakJ Honey by E BADU http://t.co/pzeqQWZeZE

— ErykahBadoula (@fatbellybella) July 19, 2015

Fortunately for the Peas, Badu's tongue-in-cheek response doesn't make it sound like her lawyers will be getting involved. Presumably she has better things to do, like win prestigious awards or ride around on a Phunkee Duck for some reason. She did take to Facebook later on to make an extra little dig at the Peas' "cute" concept and to remind everyone that hers already won awards. Like a boss.

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