Dave Reunites The Fugees

or at least got them to perform together for the first time since the late 90's at Dave Chapelle’s Block Party event held in Bedstuy Brooklyn. I believe this is the project that Michel Gondry was shooting as a Wattstax type of documentary.

A once in a lifetime experience for me and I’m sure for many others, especially for free.

The day however started tumultuous. I woke up at 7ish, drove to the train station in heavy rainfall, the kind where u can barely see the front and back of you. So I expected some flooding would cause delays on my train ride to Chinatown. But I didn’t foresee the huge setback that would take place when I got to West 4th. As the doors opened and I anticipated reaching east Broadway stop soon, screaming commenced and I saw passengers form other cars start staring, then the running. So like the mindless commuter I can be a followed suit running for my life up the stairs and out the turnstile. Turns out a fire started on the rail I was on.

This led to a new problem—my train is the only one that stopped remotely close to where the busses were picking us up to take us to the site of the concert. So I walked over to the Prince St. N/R station only to find downtown tapered off, and getting interviewed by a Daily News reporter (my quote didn’t make it).

Finally I decided to suck up my pride and stop two taxicabs (a feat in itself as a 6’ 6” black man with dreads). I did hold up a 20 for the second cab, so who knows why he really let me get in.

I got to the spot found Jenny, who provided me with the extra ticket to go (bless her). Spotted several folks I know on line, then we slowly got our armbands and got on one of the many cheese busses lined up to take us to the secret location on Bedstuy, Brooklyn.

Skipping ahead, Kanye set things off by entering the stage with a college marching band following behind him with of course “Jesus Walks” as his opener. Common, Talib, Consequence, Mos Def, and Freeway all did their respective guest verse, as they would for the other artists in the event. John Legend provided the hooks and some piano chords.

Next up, Dead Prez and Erykah Badu- my first time seeing Badu live. Badu blew me away and Common joined her to perform “Love of my Life” with no apparent discomfort. They were like good friends hugging each other.

Unfortunately. Jill Scott didn’t due to her performance of new songs from Beautifully Human, which I found boring at times, and her comparison of a relationship to us and our government (“My Petition”), didn’t arouse much from the crowd.

Surprise, surprise The Roots performed and Big Daddy Kane and Kool G Rap showed up to perform their verses from “Boom” (on which Black Thought had imitated their voices and styles) plus some of their own material. For me once again The Roots live sounded cluttered and chaotic like last time, making it hard to hear vocals. Something is missing for me with their recent direction. Yet “You Got Me” brought both Scoot and Badu to perform the hook together, turning things very emotional. Scott was the originally singer and writer of the song’s hook but was replaced by Badu cause the label wanted someone known, adding to the comparisons of both artists.

By this time I moved from my lovely spot in the middle, because
1. I was hungry after hours on my feet since 10:30 am
2. People were whining so much behind me “Your bag is hitting me”, blah blah. But I never move for those purposes, stand only shows are about who gets there first.
3. my body was killing me and I needed a new spot.

The trio (Kweli, Common, Mos) finally came on stage to their own material, alternating between collaborations and solo material.

Oh I forgot Dave Chapelle as MC was great, he crack impromtu jokes, performed his R Kelly remixes live (“pee on you”), and his crowning achievement bring The Fugees on the stage together.

The Fugees brought the crowd to a positive uproar performing all their classics. Though if you were really paying attention to their body language, you knew they weren’t a cohesive unit like yesteryear. Wyclef was still the go maniac, Lauryn was in her own space even though she performed wit ha lot of energy, and Pras seemed to be trying to keep up with the two. But this aint 10 or 7 years ago when they ate slept, joked around with each other.

TO me it may be a one-time deal. At least it should be catalyst for the three to work things out with each other personally.

All and all a historic event for all I’m sure.