Reading Friday, May 16, 2008

With the aid of two blow-up exercise balls, she danced interpretively for the entire 10 minutes, banners waving in the background. It was part Debbie Allen, part You and Me, Kid and part yogurt commercial. It pleased me so, and it exemplified why Erykah gets away with so much: her kooky charm saves her every time. Her banter with the audience was entirely hilarious. She did this thing when she sang "Tyrone," wherein she sang the "my" in the last line ("...But you can't use my phone") over and over to prolong the song. At one point, she sang a bunch of "my"s to the tune of "Wipeout" while feverishly doing the Watusi (at least, I think that's what it was). When she was finally done the song she reported, "Someone said, 'Work, bitch!' Uh, thank you?" Similarly, she kicked off a five-minute closing speech in which she thanked the audience for basically letting her do what she does, by saying, "Ladies and gentlemen, I want to let you know something: this hat itches."

MY GOD, I love FourFour.