The Men of the 19th Annual Essence Festival

July 12, 2013

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Over 540K people made their way to the 19th Annual Essence Festival in New Orleans this past July 4th weekend. Many of them, fans of the many men that would hit the mainstage during the three day festival. With performances from Maxwell, Charlie WIlson, New Edition, Trey Songz, Blackstreet, Bilal & TGT among others, ladies were easily pleased, while every man in the building was forced to dress to impress to maintain some sense of comfort in the building. Here are some of the images and our coverage from the male performers throughout the Superdome at Essence Fest 2013…

Maxwell
First up on day one of the festival was R & B veteran, Maxwell. Taking the audience on a tour of his hits, Maxwell performed songs like “The Woman’s Worth,” “Fortunate,” and “Sumthin, Sumthin” before bringing them to new hits like, “Bad Habit,” and “The Fire We Make,” his duet with Alicia Keys, where she appeared through a pre-recorded video. “Pretty Wings” was his final song, performed as his encore song, after he had originally left the stage. His show was a great appetizer for the men of the weekend.

Blackstreet
With two shows in the Coca-Cola Superlounge, Blackstreet was one of the highlights of the first night of the Festival. This Blackstreet may be a little unfamiliar to former fans however, since Teddy Riley is really the only original member of the four-man group. Sherman “J-Stylz” Tisdale, Lenny Harold & Tony Tyler joined Teddy on stage for a dance infused show, performing mostly the classics, “Don’t Leave Me,” “Before I Let You Go,” “No Diggity” and “Joy.” Midway through the show Dave Hollister appeared, one of the original group members, to lead the group in song, while also performing a couple of his solo singles. It came off like a special guest appearance from Hollister, but from what I understand this is how they perform on the road these days.

Dave Hollister

Marvin Sapp
Marvin Sapp didn’t perform on the mainstage at the Festival, but he did appear there on Day 2 to promote the Sunday Essence Empowerment Experience. He sang a verse of his breakout hit, “Never Would Have Made It,” to the satisfaction of the crowd. The Empowerment Experience was full to capacity the next say, so it’s safe to say, his promotion helped.

Trey Songz

Full coverage of the Trey Songz, Day 2 performance can be found here: Trey Songz Pleases At Essence Fest 2013… YUPPP! (Images)

Charlie Wilson
There’s R & B veterans, and then there are R & B Legends. Charlie WIlson is a Legend. Fresh off receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award at the BET Awards last weekend, Wilson was on the mainstage on the second night of the Essence Festival. For a man of 60 years, Wilson is a singing and dancing machine, performing for an hour and a couple breaks just long enough to change his outfits. His music spawns a few decades, as did his set, performing hits from his Gap band days all the way up to his Uncle Charlie days. I reiterate, he danced, through it all, partying like he was a young Trey, with his backup dancers and his band in tow. The highlight of his set was his 15 minute performance of “Outstanding” to end his set, complete with crowd participation and interludes built in.

As always, Charlie Wilson’s wife, Mahin Wilson was close during his set, finding herself in the best seat in the house, right on stage left.

New Edition
The Bad Boys of R & B would close out Day 2 of the Festival. Ronnie, Ricky, Johnny, Mike, Ralph and… Bobby were all in attendance for their performance, although Bobby didn’t appear on stage until the third song. They too danced and sang for about an hour and a half, wearing gray suits with matching diamond cufflinks. Going through songs like, “Candy Girl,” “Jealous Girl,” “Can You Stand The Rain” and more the guys helped the crowd reminisce through years of timeless music. The performed a few hits together before each individual went through a performance of their own singles, including Johnny’s “My My My,” which set the individual sets off, followed by, “My Prerogative” by Bobby Brown. As expected, Bel Biv Devoe also performed “Poison.” You forget how many hits some people have, or how many times a group has been sampled, until you see them perform.

TGT [Tyrese – Ginuwine – Tank]
Day 3 was all about Beyoncé, but before she would take the stage, the ladies would be treated to the male trio that is TGT. The small sampling really wasn’t fair, as they only had about 40 minutes to go through solo sets as well as their group set. Tank, Ginuwine and Tyrese use their solo time effectively going through a taste of their hits, but their time together on stage was more about having fun. Instead of performing new music the crowd would likely be unfamiliar with, they decided to take the time to honor other groups who have had an impact in music, including K-Ci & JoJo/Jodeci, LSG, Bell Biv Devoe, and other 3 man groups. It was an interesting use of their stage time, but they looked to be having so much fun together on stage, one couldn’t be mad at them. At one point Ginuwine ventured off into the crowd, the only artist of the the three day festival to get up close and personal with the crowd. He dared his partners in song to join him and after much persuading he finally came back on stage and guided them into the crowd where they made life difficult for security.
In the end, they ended up back on stage, Tank ended up shirtless and they performed their new single, “Sex Ain’t Never Felt Better,” to the delight of the crowd. If this show was any indication, their 3 Kings album and tour is surely something to look forward to in the coming months.