Erykah Badu recently interviewed Summer Walker for Rolling Stone’s for their Digital Exclusive “Musicians on Musicians” issue.
The phone conversation was described by the magazine as a meeting between kindred spirits.
During the conversation, the two caught up with each other about embracing their inner boss, aliens, and self-sufficiency.
We were particularly interested in Summer Walker’s views about being off the grid and her ideas around self-sufficiency.
At one point Erykah asked Summer if she would like to be off the grid at some point. Summer shared that even though she is a super introvert she is still split on that decision.
“Yes and no. I’m scared because it gets weird out there. But something like that, yeah. Solar-power everything, and my own plants. I want to make all my own soaps and lotions.”
Summer Walker on being Self-sufficient
Badu: Summer, do you still have any dreams you’d like to share? I know that one of your greatest dreams has been fulfilled, becoming a recording artist and being self-sufficient.
Walker: I only had two dreams. I just wanted to be self-sufficient, like you said, and I just want a little tiny house with a big backyard, my garden.
I want a pig. I want to make all my stuff that I use in the house from scratch — my lotions and soaps and all that stuff.
And I just want to live humbly and happily and then continue to evolve mentally and spiritually and become smart as f*k.
I want to get old and just have this big library and be hella smart. That’s what I’m working on now.
Badu: And you shall have it.
Walker: I hope so.
Badu: Did I tell you that I’m also a fairy godmother?
Walker: Are you? I’m not surprised.
Badu: I am, and you shall have everything that is for you. Every single thing you just named, you shall have it all.
It’s going to be written down. The universe will conspire with the wombniverse to make these things happen for you because you deserve them and you shall have them. All of them.
Walker: Thank you, fairy godmother.
There is something very soft and reserved about Summer Walker that is often misinterpreted by the media but during this conversation, she shared that she often feels small rooms even when she has to be a boss.
You are now an employer. You are now the boss. You are the shot caller. How do you manage that? Who tells you what to do? Who keeps you on course?
Walker: Well, no one now, which is great. The only thing is, I sound very nice when I speak and I’m very soft-spoken. So people will not take me seriously when I tell them what we’re going to do or what we’re not going to do. I often have to enforce things, and I don’t want to be mean.
Of course, Badu slipped in some solid advice:
Badu: I like it. You keep going, you’ll become the bitch that you need to be. You just keep going. It’s difficult to be a woman and a black girl who’s a boss, who’s trying to be the controller of her world. And, trust me, there’s nothing freaky about it.
If I have to give you any kind of advice: Don’t take your foot off they neck.
If you feel it and you’re intuitive about it, go forward with it. You can always correct it later, because smart girls ask for help, too.
Walker: When I used to watch you perform a lot, I just would always say, “Oh, my God, look at this confidence.” The way that you would command a room, command either your band or your space.
Woman to woman, I want to be like that, to have that type of confidence. I be walking into the room real small and then trying to still be the boss that I have to be. And it don’t work. I can’t wait to get to that point.
Badu: Oh, you will, girl. I ain’t worried about it at all. It will happen. It just happens naturally. You just get tired enough.
You learn personalities, and, trust me, we’re not trying to win an award for being the nicest and kindest person. Because that’s not some necessary thing to be all the time. You’re trying to get your vision fulfilled, and we do it as much as we can without being an asshole.
One really important thing I wanted to tell you is I’m afraid of a lot of different things. Of moving forward, or sometimes walking onstage in a different place.
Mostly when there are people that I know in the audience. I’m afraid a little bit, and it starts out that way, but I have confidence — because guess what, Summer?
It always, always, always works out. And if I fast-forward my thinking to “It always works out,” then I quickly lose that fear…
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The pictures were shot by Kennedi Carter, the same photographer who shot Beyonce recently.
Read the entire interview here.
