In honor of her 53rd birthday, Erykah Badu‘s hometown of Dallas has bestowed her with her own bus in partnership with DART.
To commemorate this partnership behind Badu Buses, DART held a press conference on Feb. 21, on the campus of Booker T. Washington High School, where Badu attended and graduated in 1989.
“I don’t have a speech, but what I can say is that we have to create our dreams and make those dreams manifest,” she told the crowd in attendance. “And I know a lot of people say those words, but it couldn’t be any truer today because in 1994, I was riding the bus, and I said, ‘I’m not going to be riding this bus too long.’ Ain’t nothing wrong with riding a bus, but ‘I’m not going to be riding the bus too long because my face is going to be on the side of the bus one day.’ I didn’t say exactly that, but you know what I mean.”
The public transportation service’s campaign utilized three buses and two trains wrapped with original art designs that included images of Badu. The vehicles will have routes that serve 13 cities in the metroplex. Local executives and community leaders who came out to rally behind the initiative and spoke at the conference were board member Patrick Kennedy, DART President & CEO Nadine S. Lee, Lily Cabatu Weiss, executive director of the Dallas arts district and Garry Williams, the principal of BTWHS, per The BEAT DFW.
“I remember there was one bus driver on my route — it wasn’t called DART at the time; it’s rebranded now, it was yellow and black and white. I remember my route, the No. 2 Ervay route to this school, Booker T. The bus driver was so sweet,” she told the Dallas Observer. “He would let people on who didn’t have transfers or the money or stuff. He didn’t talk at all, he would just do a little [nods] go to the back kinda thing. It reminded me that there are still angels and love in the city.”
Badu expressed her excitement about the campaign with her fans by posting several pictures from the event on Instagram.
“This one is for my GRANDMOTHERS !!!! They always told me : If yo city don’t put your face on the city bus you still got work to do. 🫵🏾😆Thank you so much @dartdaily DALLAS AREA RAPID TRANSIT for this beautiful fun collab and great honor for myself and young city of Dallas. 💕 it’s gonna be hard to find a parking spot for this big muh…. I love you Robbie Douglas. Thanks dart team , @btwhspva and badu world !!!! Mama we made it,” she captioned her post.
The positive vibes and momentum carried into the weekend at Badu’s annual birthday bash concert at The Factory in Deep Ellum, Texas, where Larry June, The Alchemist and Rhapsody performed, the Dallas Observer reported.
“I love you so much, Dallas. I’m five generations,” Badu said to the audience while on stage. “I’ll never move.”
