Taboo Sandton and #HashTag Productions win at exclusivity! They managed to get Erykah Badu on the line up for the “Joburg Shutdown” #RockaLaunch which featured Mi Casa, DJ Tira, DJ Zinhle, Danny K, Khuli Chana, DJ Dimples and DJ Vigilante. This was awesome news for Erykah’s fans like myself who were unable to go see her headlining at the Cape Town Jazz Festival.
The first performance of the night was the poor man’s version of Robin Thicke, Danny K. The “Pretty Brown Eyes” singer tried to serenade the crowd with his ballads and honestly, it was a yawn fest! The crowd couldn’t look more bored. Who can blame them? Who wants to slow dance 30 minutes before midnight on a Friday night?!
DJ Zinhle, who was one of the musicians launching Rocka headphones, brought the house down with her set. One of my favourite moments was when she played Uhuru and Bongo Maffin’s rework of the classic “Thath’isgubu” and everyone flocked towards Thandiswa Mazwai, who was in the audience.
At 02:30, Erykah Badu, aka Fat Belly Bella, aka Serra Bellum, aka Maria Mexico, aka Annie, and aka Badoula finally came out this time as DJ Lo Down Loretta Brown. As if on cue, DJ The Josh played a song that featured her ex boo, Andre 3000. The 43-year-old “Treehugging Dirt Worshipper” (according to a sticker on her Macbook Pro), whose talents include singing, DJ-ing and supporting pregnant women as a doula, sang a few of her songs before she kicked off her DJ set which included some old school classics like Marvin’s Gaye “Sexual Healing”.
I hate to admit it since I’m such a huge fan, but yes, she had a couple of technical glitches. Some guys tried to boo her, but what they obviously didn’t know is the fact that Erykah Badu could never do any wrong in the eyes of the mass of fans who congregated at Taboo, so no one joined them in the booing attempt. We waited patiently for her to resume and she continued with her set until four in the morning. She ended her set with a beautiful rendition of one of my all-time favourite songs, “Window Seat”.
Sidenote: BTW, you know how you can tell that someone is not really an Erykah Badu fan? They keep screaming “Tyrone” while she is performing other equally beautiful tunes.
