Music

The DOC Talks 'Mutual Respect' With Ex Erykah Badu, Calls Her 'Powerful'

The Dallas-born artists share a 21-year-old daughter, Puma Curry.

(L) Rapper The D.O.C., aka Tracy Curry, attends the premiere of HBO's "The Defiant Ones" at Paramount Theatre on June 22, 2017 in Hollywood, California. (R) Erykah Badu performs at Alcatraz on November 07, 2025 in Milan, Italy.
Images via Allen Berezovsky/WireImage and Sergione Infuso/Corbis via Getty Images

Exes The DOC and Erykah Badu have maintained healthy co-parenting relationship even as their daughter, Puma, has entered adulthood.

The Dallas-born rapper appeared on podcast Willie D Live earlier this month, and while discussing relationship with Badu, he shared that they still have a friendship.

"I know how to move out the way with Erykah. I know how to get in the way with Erykah. I know how to shut the fuck up with Erykah. I know how to speak my mind with Erykah," The DOC said around the five-minute mark of the video below.

The DOC remarried after his split from Badu in the mid-2000s, and the Mama's Gun vocalist also shares a 27-year-old son, Seven, with André 3000 and a daughter, 16-year-old Mars, with Jay Electronica.

The DOC went on to call Badu a "powerful lady" and a "good woman."

"I respect her and that respect is mutual," he said. "But she's done some incredible things in her life and so who am I to tell her anything? All I can do is be there for her and our daughter."

The DOC added that he's happy to be present for Badu's other children.

"I can be there for for those kids in any kind of way then I'm going to be there
in lieu of their fathers who I respect 'cause I would expect the same thing from them," he concluded.

Earlier in the conversation, The DOC recounted that he and Badu broke up after he decided to contribute to a Dr. Dre album, which concerned the vocalist that he would fall out of sobriety.

"But I wanted to go, and she received that and let me go," he said. "Now, we both knew when I left that we weren't going to be able to come back to what it was. And we acknowledged that and just moved forward."

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BERLIN, GERMANY - NOVEMBER 04: American singer Erykah Badu performs live on stage during a concert at the Uber Eats Music Hall on November 4, 2025 in Berlin, Germany.
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