Eprhyme vs. Michael Jackson “Will You Be There” Live!
This was a crazy night. We headed into SOBs for their CMJ Showcase which featured a jazz group, a spanish Ska Band, Eprhyme, Diwon accompanied by Manny, the illest drummer and backing man for Wyclef and headliner Praz of the Fugees new group. The most exciteing moment of the night is the video below….to the right of that, however, is a little story. so, ch-ch-ch-eck it out:
Eprhyme and Diwon opened for Praz. They were stoked and honored. But, when Praz got on he ran through all the old Fugees stuff. Not only that, but he just played the chorus and his verse. Almost in a way to say, “yo, I was in that group! see!??” The lame part was that instead of having Lauren just rock it, he brought out a girl from Philly to take her place and sing her parts which came off more as kareoke than anything and might have been passable if they didn’t also perform the ALL Lauren songs, which Praz only chimed in with lines like “One Time….Two Times”. Picture Praz on stage looking at this girl from Philly singing Lauren Hill songs…and we were suppossed to be all about it? The room started to clear and then Praz had enough…he clutched the mic and said, “I will not be disrespected in my hometown NYC! They are from Jersey (didn’t fully understand how that fact was supporting the statement). Anyway, the best or saddest part was when he finally got to music which didn’t come out 14 years ago….his new stuff! But, when the first song of his new material finally ended he was so mad at the crowd for not feeling it that he said, “You just don’t know! I’m going to play it again!”
here is how the chorus went:
I’m a hip star
You’re a hip star
I’m a hip star
You’re a hip star
We do it. We go so hard.
And everywhere we go
people know who we are
(I’m just not so sure that will be the case anymore)
Love to my man, but I think it’s time to stop proving the Fugees thing and just move on.
– Guy Emanuel
p.s. we couldn’t film Praz…it just broke our hearts too much…we love his earlier work too much. But, we did film Diwon and Manny doing an MPC vs Live Drum Kit thing for Eprhyme, check it here.
