As opposed to all my other blogs, this one is all about me. Well, sort of. This post will be about my interactions with celebrities from the music industy.
The first concert I ever attended took place in my hometown of Alexandria, LA. The World Class Wrecking Crew (featuring Dr. Dre of NWA fame) and The Rappin’ Duke (Duh Haa, Duh Haa) were performing. But that’s not the concert that would change my life. It was the SECOND concert I ever attended that did the trick. I traveled to Lake Charles, LA with a friend to see the hottest concert of the year; Public Enemy, RunDMC, Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince, EPMD, LL Cool J, JJ FAD and others were performing. RunDMC was favorite, as they, along with LL and The Fresh Prince were the only acts I was familiar with. There came my first encounter with a music celebrity. While RunDMC was performing, Darrell “DMC” MacDaniels (my favorite rapper) reached out for a towel I was waving in the air (we were 2 standing rows away from the stage). I threw my towel to the mega-star, and he caught it! As he threw it back, a woman directly in front of me caught it, and refused to give it back! Memorable, yes! Disappointing, yes as well!
The next celebrity encounter occurred while interning at The Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, FL. On an off day, a friend and I went on a shopping trip at The Florida Mall. As we were walking in the mall, my friend whispered, “Hey, that’s Queen Latifah over there!” After approaching her, I was surprised to find that she was very friendly! In fact, she invited us to the after-gathering at her hotel. She, along with other notables like Public Enemy, Heavy D & Tha Boyz and Kid n’ Play were performing in Orlando that night. The concert was awesome, and afterwards, we were escorted into the hotel (hundreds of people were trying to get in) by one of Queen’s dancers named Kika. While hanging in the hotel bar, I met Chuck D and Flava Flav of Public Enemy, Christopher “Play” Martin of Kid n’ Play and Queen Latifah and her dancers, Swatch and Kika. Autographs and political discussions were aplenty that night!
The before mentioned encounters were exciting and memorable, but they fail in comparison to going to school with a celebrity in the making. My alma mater, Grambling State University, is home to many talented students. One such student, Erica Wright, did not reach the pinnacle of stardom until after her time at GSU. Erica was a fellow Theatre Guild member, and she performed in several productions while at Grambling. Her most notable musical ventures as a student came as a member of the singing foursome, Harmony. Harmony, consisting of Erica, Miko Marks (now a budding country music singer) and two others, performed at many campus and local events. My interactions with Erica came through the Theatre Guild and many of the campus musical events, as I was a member of the DJ Committee, which set-up sound equipment and provided music for those events. Erica changed her name after leaving GSU. She is now Erykah Badu.
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