Part Tres!!! The Finale to the Bday Xtravaganza!!!

Coming off this weekend of such a joyous occasion as celebrating my life was the most honoring feeling ever. First off I never had a better birthday in my life! (Partly becuz it lasted 4 days! :-D) All the free concerts plus the inspiration I got to just be who I am was ABSOLUTLEY INCREDIBLE!!! It really let me realize how blessed I am!!! God LOOOOOVVVVESSSSS my ASS!!!

I ended up waking up and having the chance to watch Nas be interviewed by Wendy Williams on her television show. Might I add that THAT really felt amazing to me too becuz Hip Hop isn’t really accepted in morning talk shows or talk shows period!! So I felt an extreme moment of happiness and accomplishment for what Wendy Williams did on her show with the prominent Nas. It was a pinnacle moment in Hip Hop and that’s to be acknowledged!

Everything else revolved around this Erykah concert that I already knew I was running late for. I had a thousand things to do and wasn’t sure when I was gonna get to BK. I flew down Route 80 and picked up Kena and was out!!!

The gates opened at 6p which basically meant u needed to be there at least by 4p to get a decent seat in the front. Luckily, even though I got there 5 minutes to 6p, I had my homegirl Kali holding down the front cuz she got there 3 hours ahead.

“Hallejah Holla Back” was my catch phrase of the day and pretty much the whole damn weekend.(LOL!! wack right?) Thank God for blessing Dope Settings!!!! The Sun shined so bright on this day! It was incredible to believe that it was just a beautiful summer day.


Erykah Erykah Erykah Amazing and beautiful and pregnant as usual. @(^_^)@ (only kidding)

She let ‘A Milli’ by Lil Wayne open the show and when it got to “Where is Erykah Badu at?”, the music switched up to the ‘My People ’instrumental and in that moment Hip Hop came full circle. Then I had to wonder? What is it about Hip Hop that allows us all to embrace it in this world wide driven way? I watched in amazement as the words “… where is Erykah Badu at?” floated out the speakers and then low and behold Ms. Badu traveled across the stage as the bass kicked in. Moments later the band switched up to an instrumental that I knew too well, that flowed off strings and drums where melodies collided to make the song, ‘The Healer’. “humdiliah, Allah, Jehovah, Yaweh, Dios, Maat, Jah, Ras Tafari, fire, dance, sex, music, hip hop…”came together. The stage looked like nothing that had to do with a free show. They had the huge screens up so that all the thousands of people could see the magnificence happening.




It’s something profound about watching an artist you love, develop into this mass icon that thousands upon thousands would come to see. The band plays as she introduces who she is for the audience who is already very aware. “Ms. Analog girl in a digital world/ Ms. Obdullah oblagotta / Ms. Annie don’t wear no panties otherwise known as Ms.Badu.”




Some would say she’s changed into this artist that can’t be controlled. That her music has become so left field that her core audience has disappeared. As I watched in amazement at the mass of ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS people surrounding the huge stage that all of a sudden looked extremely small compared to the enormous amount of people standing in Wingate Park, I realized change is ok.

Change… I’ve always wondered when watching artists, where in the dynamic of development is it okay to change? We all love “Otherside of the Game” yet a revamped version of it should always be accepted.


New Amerykah is a play on words and also the inspired title of Erykah Badu’s latest album release. Now if you’d like to know how I feel about the album you can check the review on www.GakCity.com under Erykah Badu. Grasping what I got from the actual performance of her show is a whole other dynamic.

She performed sooooo many pieces and gave the audience what she could. Considering that it appeared that I was in a somewhat burgeious crowd of beautiful prissy black folk, the energy she got could only be returned with half assed enthusiasim towards her fans. I could see what was happening right away. So could she. It became acknowledged at one point where she addressed the crowd with, “I see what you’re trying to do Brooklyn. I’m gonna let you know that I’m not scared of you.”

Slightly saddened by the non-movement of the thousands of people who could’ve truly given more spunk in their happiness to witness a free show, I knew I’d still get a dashing performance. Now this was no Radio City Music Hall Performance (which might I add was PHENOMANAL) but the range as to where she could get her voice with a child growing inside of her was something of greatness.


There’s a true feeling of appreciation that I feel comes from seeing an artist such as her. She’s someone who’s been quoted as allowing herself to be a spirit first and a human later. So, as many nay-sayers of whom may have been in the audience, it didn’t seem to matter because art is art. Each individual will get from her whatever it is that they’re supposed to get.



For me…, I believe that there was room in this free concert to be appreciative of what art is, what blessings look like and what God-given gifts are. (She even let me sing in the mic on the “Bag Lady” song!!)


I learned from that phenomenal weekend that we’re all allowed to be as happy as we wanna be about our day or as sad. I chose to be appreciative and thankful of all the free concerts and inspiration it caused me to have so that I could share it with the world.


I ended that night by going to a diner over on Montague St. in BK. I ending up at one of my most favorite places to be which was the Promenade which sits right above the BQE. I walked the whole boardwalk singing Prince, Biggie and Nas songs. It was truly the most beautiful ending to the best damn birthday weekend I ever had.
So as I sit and type this review on such a grandiose show 4 weeks late (turning into 4 months late in posting) sitting inside Starbucks, I’ll raise my Vente Caramel Frap in the air and toast to the life of a journalist that will get no sleep just to catch up with reviews that document a star in the making and a life in motion.

Next up to bat… Jill Scott. @(^_^)@