Where most of you got to spend time in the living room in the living room eating soul food with your families, I got to do that AND MORE. After catching Ja Rule in Atlantic City and Creed II (soundtrack and score is fire by the way) in theaters. I got to make up a birthday present for Shorty last year. I secured H.E.R. tickets for her Brooklyn stop of the I Used to Know Her Tour. I'll put you in the room as best as possible.
I'll start with a story. The reason this is a make up present is because a year before we arrived late and missed half of H.E.R's set on Bryson Tiller's Tour at Radio City. H.E.R was the reason we were going in the first place and I dropped the ball. You know I was punctual this time around. We arrived in time for sets from DJ Aktive, Jersey's own Tone Stith, and Philly native, Bri Steves. All of them are crazy talented with beautiful voices. Tone can dial up a fallsetto on cue whenever he feels like it with ridiculous control. Bri Steves is a fun performer and has a versatile voice gritty enough for rap and sultry enough for the blues. The mix of her crossover skill and her personality makes her pleasantly sexy. She's funny and treats the crowd like she's having a one on one conversation, but with music.
The lights go down and DJ Scratch asks a question that everyone in the crowd answered in a lie.
"ARE YOU READY FOR HHHHHHEEEEERRRRRR?!???!?!?!?!"

Finally the song ends and she introduces herself before the next track. She goes through Vol. 2 and her prelude EPs before taking us back to Vol. 1's classics. I should have been prepared to go to my second service of the day because it was church in that ballroom. Best Part may be a song of this generation one day. Live is just as good as the studio version. I think everyone held their breath thinking Daniel Caesar would come on stage but they played the first few words of his verse before her male backup showed out for the ladies in the crowd. If you never experienced love before listen to this song and catch it live if you can because WOW. Her crowd participation is dope, and you should have seen what it looked like when everyone held their phone up during her performance of Lights On.

I must say that I'm glad I got to smell the flowers early. I may have been one of the first on the HER wagon when Vol. 1 first dropped. It's not about who heard it first because music is meant to be shared. I'm not sure anyone saw H.E.R. topping the resurgence of R&B and becoming as big as she is. Brooklyn Steel may be as intimate of a show as you'll see H.E.R. from now on. I enjoy my R&B on a small scale. Coffee House Jazz feel. Where she doesn't have a large catalogue of music yet, she very well become a megastar. Small stages and standing room only ballrooms are going to become theaters, festivals, and stadiums. They already are as I type. The now Brooklyn native, is huge and I'm thankful that I got to see it from the beginning. I fear (but in a good way, I think) that I'll never get to experience her any more personal than I had November 25th. There's no other way to say it but it was beautiful. Her voice is so raw. Her backup is just as talented. She's such a musician and her riffs and runs give you goosebumps. You can literally feel the hair standing up your spine. You need to see her as soon as you can before you gotta break the bank. That day is coming, soon. This is probably one of the best live shows I've ever seen since covering music and that's real.
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