One of the last concerts of the summer season for the MLK concert series at Wingate Park in Brooklyn, New York featured two powerful forces in the music and entertainment industry: rapper/singer, actress, spokes person & Movie Mogul Queen Latifah and gospel music super duo Mary Mary (Erica Atkins-Campbell and Tina Atkins-Campbell).
One of the hosts for the night, other than my favorite Borough President Marty Markowitz, was the very pregnant Egypt from WBLS. She was all aglow. The night was entitled an evening with Queen Latifah and it certainly was. Mary Mary was there because their original performance date earlier in the summer got rained out so they came back to give Brooklyn the show they promised.
Queen Latifah said she was gonna take the crowd to the club and Mary Mary would take the crowd to church! Queen Latifah sang jazzy blues songs that filled the atmosphere with nostalgia while she freshened up with her Covergirl lipgloss. I ain’t hatin’, she got bills to pay too. She sang songs like ‘Poetry Man’ and ‘California Dreaming’ in addition to ‘U-N-I-T-Y’ from back in the day! Queen Latifah has a strong alto voice and can definitely blow. It was a little weird though to see her singing those soft love songs and then start rapping hard core. She even sang the chorus to Jay-Z & Alicia Keys NYC anthem ‘Empire State of Mind’. She gave a good show, even her back up singers Michelle and Theresa rocked. You go girls!
My favorite part of the show was Mary Mary…what can I say, I’m a church girl at heart. They rocked the stage with songs from their new CD ‘Something Big’. It sure was big. Those girls have an anointed chemistry on stage that cannot be denied. They sang ‘The God in Me’, ‘Something Big’ and my all time Mary Mary favorite ‘Shackles’ amongst other songs. Once the girls got on stage the atmosphere changed from concert hall to church hall. They sang, testified and exhorted.
What else can I say but Amen!
