So, Last night I went to peep The Roots and Ms. Erykah Badu live in Montreal. All I can say is that that is one of the best shows I have seen in my city EVER. The Roots came out mad early (7 pm) and rocked for about an hour and a half. Black Thought never dissapoints. As an MC, his delivery, presence, breath control and overall ability to say ANYTHING at ANY SPEED is something I look up to and hope to be able to achieve. The band is next level, segway-ing from song to song to song without interruption or break, making the Roots experience an expanding and growing relationship between the crowd and themselves. I've seen them three times so far in my life and each time it felt like a new chapter. ?uestlove then gave a talk about how Erykah is late and they aren't supposed to play this long, but they will anyway. After doing tracks from their new record for the first hour, the Roots did a medley of all the latest tracks you and yours know ("This is why I'm hot" or "Hot Thing", "Hip-Hop is dead" and a slew of classic tracks around some jiggy joints.)
As the Roots slowly filed off stage, the MTL crowd was anxious for Erykah to hit us with the light like the powerhouse that she is. I had never seen her in person or on stage in my life, and her last album (or all her albums) are on LP on my Ipod. For those of you who haven't bought New Amerykah Part 1, I suggest you step out of your crib and go purchase it asap. The spiritual, lyrical, personal and political on this album are so on-point for our generation of Arab. We can learn and grow from her words and the depth of her experience as an African-American Woman in babylon.
Erykah was late. She hit the stage about an hour after the Roots so people started getting antsy. As she started, she hit us with the first four tracks off her new record and then went into a bunch of old joints like "On and On" and "Tyrone". Far from being the worst show-woman, she never stopped between tracks either. Her band in her fingertips, Badu would stop and pull on the drummers rhythm, have the keys come in where she wanted to wail out and orchestrated her back-up singers like they were her own voice. She had to finish at 11, so I felt like the set was short (probably due to the fact that her bus driver hit the wrong city). She ended her set with TELEPHONE, a song she wrote for the late great J Dilla (James Yancey). It is one of the best songs I have heard come out of this queen and the one i relate to the most. Losing a brother is always hard to deal with. She of course came back for an encore. She did SOLDIER, the next single off her record. This is the one that addresses the more inconsistencies in North America, where she has lines like "To my folks in Iraqi fields, this ain't no time to kill". I love her.
If this tour is rolling through to your town, go check it out. I promise you it is something you will remember infinitely. From the lights, to her ever-expanding voice, to the soul and love in the room, Erykah and the Roots is my show of the year. And her album is album of the last three years. GO COPP THAT.
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2 comments:
Gotta love Erykah's music, but am I the only one who thinks that she carries herself with a holier-than-though attitude?
You better calll up tyrone
She has a right to act holier than thou because she most probably is.
My favourite song off the album, among many favourites, is "Twinkle". From the title you think stardust, but its more like an attack from outer space. I love her embrace of music's far reaches and her sense of humor.
For instance: "Oh... Freedom's here!" as if it just came to a birthday party.
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