Erykah Badu - Honey

What this video is

Released in January 2008, 'Honey' arrived as Erykah Badu's first video in five years and marked the lead single for 'New Amerykah Part One (4th World War),' a politically charged album released amid the final year of the George W. Bush presidency and the historic 2008 US presidential campaign. The video's record-store setting is explicitly elegiac — a tribute to the endangered physical music retail space at a…

Why it matters

A landmark neo-soul music video, 'Honey' crystallized the genre's reverence for Black musical history and analog culture at a tipping point in the digital era. Its VFX-driven album-cover concept was technically innovative for 2008 R&B video production and directly influenced subsequent…

The director

Chris Robinson is a prolific American music video director known professionally under the pseudonym 'Mr. Roboto.' He has directed videos for major R&B, hip-hop, and pop artists including Mary J. Blige, P. Diddy, T.I., Amerie, R. Kelly, and Jordin Sparks.…