The Roots made their fourth and final curated performance at the 2010 Hennessy Artistry tour this past Thursday and the line up was stacked to the very high ceilings of the uber upscale Cipriani on Wall Street, New York City. The Okayplayer style variety show proceeded as follows with The Roots band holding down the non-stop mix: The Roots, D-Nice, Q-Tip, Ron Isley, Mike Posner, Eve, Erykah Badu, Bobby Brown, and Mary J Blige. Pretty frickin nuts and between all the talent, open bar Hennessy blends, and Cipriani as the back drop, the place was buzzing to say the least.
There were many moments and we have a few exclusive videos from the night after the jump. For Roots fans, however, there was one special performance that was a LONNNNG time coming. That was when both Erykah Badu and Eve took the stage with The Roots to perform their Grammy Award winning hit "You Got Me" for the first time with the song's original cast of lyricists (as it appeared on the album at least). Read our interview with Black Thought and watch more videos from the evening after the cut.
Go to Facebook.com/Hennessy to find even more photos and higher quality videos.
dantana: So that was the first time The Roots ft Erykah and Eve performed You Got Me live as it appears on Things Fall Apart?
Black Thought: We performed it with Eve for the first time in Miami at the Hennessy gig a few weeks ago. Me and Eve rocked together in LA yeeeears ago on some freestyle rappin' Philly shit. Back then she was known as Eve of Destruction and she was in a group in Philly with another chick but she was the sharper MC. Eve and her ol' homie E Rex used to come around the studio and around the time we recorded "You Got Me" I hit her up because she had a dope female voice. I had her do background vocals on " Ain't Sayin Nothin New" then had her do the female part on "You Got Me." I had written the part, she laid it down and changed maybe 2 words."
dantana: How come Eve was not in the video for the song?
BT: When the video came out, MCA Records gagged her and the car never showed up for her to come to the video shoot. The chick who was cast as the love interest, you'll notice, could have very well been Eve cuz she was basically a look alike. When we won the Grammy, Eve never received an award for her effort and I'm sure all this shit all together hurt her feelings. But she's always been mad talented and she definitely got what she deserved in the long run. As did Jill Scott, another up and coming Philly unknown who got dicked by MCA who wanted a higher-profile collaboration for the album's official lead single.
dantana: So was there beef?
BT: Though there was no beef once she got on we never worked together again. I was never asked to collaborate with Eve, nor invited to any Eve event or video, and understandably so. Also, when she sat on couch for Fallon, Jimmy mentioned her never getting her award and Ahmir (or the writers) joked about giving her his 10 year old broken award as a peace offering. Which I thought was in poor taste. In the end, myself and The Roots are very proud to have worked with Eve so early on in her career and to have played a roll in introducing her to the World as the megastar that she is. Since those days Eve has gone on to be a supremely talented artist, actress, and spoke woman, and she takes care of herself so she's still fine as ever. More power and success to her.
dantana: Thanks for taking the time, sir. Going to hit our readers with a few more videos and words, starting with "Bag Lady" from Erykah Badu.
Funny, "Let Me Blow Ya Mind" and "Bag Lady" both sound like Scott Storch production (he gets some credit for the Eve track), who also produced "You Got Me" which beat out "Still D.R.E." for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group at the 2000 Grammy Awards… but I digress…
The crew ended Q-Tip's set with ATCQ's "Bonita Applebum" into the Remix when Ron Isley came out to segue perfectly into the Isley Brother's classic "Between The Sheets" which the remix samples … uhhhh, say what!
Go to Facebook.com/Hennessy to find even more photos and higher quality videos.
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