The inspiration for this song really came from a prayer.
I thought about three things:
I was moved by the idea of flipping "Strange Fruit"
because I was really inspired by "Strange Fruit"
obviously on this song and Billie Holiday,
and then this idea of the power of blood
and how it fertilizes us,
and then the scent of victory
and what that smells like for us,
'cause I believe we're a victorious people, and she was.
'United States Vs. Billie Holiday,'
it was directed by Lee Daniels,
written by Suzan Lori-Parks,
and it's really about the early war on drugs
and how no war on drugs has ever really been genuine.
It started in the '40s
and it was always entrenched in race,
and Billie Holiday was truly the first martyr.
They actually went after her
because she was singing "Strange Fruit".
She was holding a mirror up to the nation
and she was integrating audiences
and talking about racial terror and lynching in America.
She truly was the early godmother
of the Civil Rights Movement.
It was her singing "Strange Fruit"
in defiance of the government
and the death of Emmett Till
that reinvigorated Thurgood Marshall and the movement.
So we're vindicating her legacy here
and Lee executes that so brilliantly.
As far as the music goes,
it's natural for me to reach out to Raphael Saadiq
'cause he just makes that fire.
So he sent over a really beautiful track
that he said had a wrong chord in it, but it was beautiful.
And that was perfect
'cause it reminded me of Billie Holiday.
It took me like a month,
maybe over a month to write the lyrics after that,
but after I prayed about it
all of that stuff kind of came pouring out.
I didn't want people to see us hanging.
I didn't want us to see us hanging on a tree anymore.
"Strange Fruit" was sort of like a call to awareness
and this song is more of a call to action.
So that was really kind of, "Get off the tree,
cut it down under your feet,"
there's a sense of ownership there.
You know what I'm saying?
There's a sense of the story with our truth
and with our strength,
those things that have held us up
in this sort of victimhood.
Juicy fruit, so bittersweet,
obviously, we're a beautiful people,
people of color, marginalized people are beautiful people,
but we've been through a lot, you know what I mean?
But I think that a lot made us really strong and healthy
which is why I said juicy fruit,
'cause it's not withered and it's not dying.
Now, we are a brolic, strengthened fruit, you know?
And then, "Fruit stand tall, these roots go deep,"
I mean, we got Billie Holiday's shoulders to lean on,
we have so many ancestors that came before us.
"Strange fruit bussin' on these thieves,"
was the lyric that I was certain
would not get this thing nominated for anything.
We're more familiar with singing songs
that are more clearly sort of uplifting, right?
And this song is more militant.
This song is I think more challenging.
Hats off to the HFPA and to Golden Gloves for nominating it
because, she a lil' war ting, you know what I mean?
So, it's definitely not what I think I'm used to hearing
in those spaces, so I'm happy and grateful.
Billie Holiday, I hear all the time,
"Well, she wasted her life."
She did not waste her life.
She was victorious, she was triumphant,
and I was thinking about the scent of victory,
like what would that smell like?
And I was like, "Oh, it would smell like our ancestors."
And so later in her life,
Billie Holiday's two favorite perfumes
were Tweet and Tigress
and so that's where the name "Tigress and Tweed" came from.
It's just letting the future generations know,
like, this is on your shoulders now.
I was just thinking about like battle regalia,
Different things that you would use in battle,
in different periods.
And so, I didn't really want to say tank
it was a little too...
I wanted to tie it to how regal we are as a people,
to our royalty, to the kings and queens that we are
and that came before us
and so chariots just felt like it fit.
And that's who we are as a generation,
we carry the mantle now and we carry the fight
in our chariots 'cause we royal.
I wanted the chorus to be, "Say a prayer for me,"
because that's the crux, that's the crux of who I am.
You know what I mean?
And I didn't wanna lose sight of why I was doing this.
I didn't want it just to be anger,
you know what I'm saying?
That's the thing is like it's gotta be anger,
hope and strength,
and I think that's what God sort of endows us with.
So for me, I wanted to make sure
that it stayed kind of in the spirit and of the spirit,
'cause I think a lot of people might look at a song
like this and be like, "How could you have prayed,
and that's what comes out?"
I'm like, "That's what came out!"
You know what I mean?
I'm like, so I gotta be militant too
And, "I don't get no sleep,"
really I don't really don't be sleeping.
I gotta work on it.
And I imagine she didn't much either,
when she got the feds coming down on her, you feel me?
Artists, especially for us, we reflect the times
and we echo what's going on or in our lives.
And so I think it's like, just the effort
by black women in general, by women of color in general,
by women in general,
the effort that we make to bring people together,
Billie did that.
Stacey Abrams, we've seen her do that.
It really all ties together
and that goes back to the central theme of blood, right?
Blood is central to my faith.
Blood is central to our strength.
I was thinking about the blood of our ancestors.
And so damu actually means blood in Swahili,
and I was thinking about blood of our ancestors,
blood being central to our faith.
And so it's not a tragedy,
all those lives lost.
I wanted it to be like all those lives hanging on the tree.
The castrations, as Billie says, "The bulging eyes,
the twisted mouth, the burning flesh," that's not a tragedy.
It is a tragedy, but that blood is what strengthens us now,
so we can't let that go to waste,
that has went and fertilize the roots,
and that's what I said,
"That's what's fertilized this new fruit."
I'm from Southern California, right?
So we understand the term, "Damu."
We understand the term, "Pressing that line."
It's gangster, but Billie holiday was gangster,
you know what I mean?
That's what, "Always pressing that line," means.
I'm more than affiliated,
like I'm pressing that line,
I'm in, I'm committed, I'm in the fight.
The truth is black and white
and it's I think written in black and white is
our stories and our history has been manipulated.
People like J. Edgar Hoover, people like Harry J. Anslinger,
who thrived in the gray area,
they thrived in deception and they thrived in the gray area.
And so I really wanted to challenge that idea
like, no, the truth is black and white.
Our contributions are very clear,
our struggle is very clear,
and we need to know all of these things.
To prepare for Billie Holiday,
ooh, I started smoking cigarettes,
I started drinking alcohol, I don't sleep,
and I just stopped taking care of my voice,
and lost a bunch of weight,
and met with a bunch of heroin addicts and former addicts,
and cut off all my hair.
It was so much,
there's a lot of levels to where we went,
but everybody went there.