Wyclef killed it at the Nokia Theater last night. Opening with "Heaven's in NY", a mellow tribute from his new album, closing with a guitar shredding National Anthem and encoring with "Perfect Gentleman", Clef kept the crowd on its toes with our hands in the air. Pras made an unexpected cameo, taking us back to the glorious Fugees days when kids all got along and Roberta Flack became hip hop. "Fu-Gee-La" was followed by "Ready Or Not" (they skipped Lauryn's verse, which was disappointing but I suppose quite sensible)...and Pras brought back his 5 minutes of post-Fugees fame with "Ghetto Superstar". I won't get into every detail of this brilliant show, but I will tell you that there were carnival masks involved, Clef hung from banisters, did backflips and played guitar with his teeth, new tunes, throwback tunes, I was swollen to the brim with excitement, nostalgia, energy and just plain tomfoolery.
A surprising addition to the night was UK based Estelle (whose new album drops in February).
She sings, she raps...no surprise she'd be opening for Clef. Ridiculously reminiscent of Lauryn (or rather, the memory of the Lauryn we all knew and loved), she strutted around in black Louboutins, a dope short, low-cut military style dress, and a sassy haircut that we ladies all wish we could pull off.
She also has a videoblog that she posts on semi-regularly. This is one to watch out for--the big stars like Kanye and John Legend already know (as do a lot of the UK folks). Snaps and Daps tags this girl as an '08 blow up...and if ya don't know, now you know!!!
'prece.