Erykah Badu Pleads Not Guilty to "Window Seat" Charge

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Erykah Badu has pleaded not guilty to a disorderly conduct charge stemming from her controversial "Window Seat" music video, which featured the New Amerykah Part Two singer stripping down naked while walking through Dallas' Dealey Plaza. Hundreds of Dallas residents, some of them children, watched Badu's video shoot, and while no one called police at the time, as Rolling Stone previously reported, the police actively sought witnesses to step forward in order to charge Badu after the video became a viral sensation. One witness finally complained earlier this month, telling officers "she and her two small children were offended," leading to the Class C misdemeanor charge, which carries a $500 fine. Rather than simply pay the fee by mail, however, Badu opted to challenge the charge, Dallas Morning News reports.

Badu's "Window Seat" video combined Matt and Kim's "Lessons Learned" clip, in which the duo ran around New York's Times Square naked, with allusions to the assassination of John F. Kennedy, which also took place in Dealey Plaza. Badu has since said she chose Dealey Plaza because it was one of the most popular places in Dallas.

As Rolling Stone previously reported, Dallas officials sought to use the "Window Seat" case as a catalyst to springboard changes to the city's "no permit necessary" laws for video shoots. So far, Badu has not commented on her plea on her very active Twitter.

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Song Stories

“Karma Chameleon”

Culture Club | 1983

Boy George has said this song was about standing by what you believe in. However, at the time, he was involved in a secret affair with Culture Club drummer Jon Moss. "Now people can understand the songs better," he said. "They were written about my relationship with Jon, and they were also written about being a gay man in a homophobic world." The lines "If I listen to your lies, would you say/I'm a man without conviction/I'm a man who doesn't know how to sell a contradiction," described his life at the time, he said. "I was selling this big lie."

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