As the super-sized Superdome blares out the last musical note well after midnight, TV One is just cranking up the graveyard shift of the Essence Music Festival in New Orleans Friday through Sunday. The likes of Mary J. Blige, Roland Martin, LisaRaye and Idris Elba and more have decorated the VIP section of TV One’s weekend after parties better than Christmas ornaments.
Few, if any, Essence attendees go straight to bed after the likes of Janet Jackson, Alicia Keys and Mary J. shut the day down. Thousands of Essence Fest attendees spill out of the Superdome and flood the TV One party inside Harrah’s Casino & Resort about a mile away for mass celebration that doesn’t stop until the sun comes up.
LisaRaye was at her extroverted and curvaceous best, mixing sass and sexiness and intermingling like everyone was family inside the VIP section onstage behind the DJ booth. The Queen of hip hop soul was much more reserved and instead rocked in her seat to the music provided by the iconic DJ Biz Markie. Blige’s appearance inspired an avalanche of amateur photographers to bum-rush the front of the stage in attempt to record her royal appearance.
Roland Martin, on the other hand, was channeling his inner Jackie Wilson as he put on a spontaneous dance exhibition onstage before the horde of hip hop heads below. The throng of partiers halted their own dancing to cheer Martin. The CNN personality and host of the popular TV One weekly news series Washington Watch has no compunction about setting dance floors ablaze with his revved up kinetic energy — and cares little about who may disapprove. — terry shropshire
