Erykah Badu Makes $3.60 Singing in Times Square

It has been a while since Erykah Badu released a new album, so in an effort to make a couple of dollars the R&B singer hit the streets of New York to… panhandle.

In a iPhone video released Wednesday by Badu, who has become a bit of a social media maven with her quirky vines and tweets, the soulful artist stands in the middle of Time Square, holding out a hat and singing to passersby. Throughout the video, Badu goes largely unnoticed, though she’s able to collect a couple of dollars ($3.60 to be exact) as a result of her efforts.

Badu even quips that with “some initiative, you can make money.” To finish things off, the ever-political songstress reminds viewers that, “in reality, life is a lot harder than this.”