#roadtoessence

[tailoredbeauty-blog]

Hello beautiful people when taking accountability for your choices and actions there's no need for explanation, judgement is made based off your original thoughts and then everything around you will look 👀 like it's judging you .... but simply realize you create your reality. so release the habit and the mind battle of negativity so you can build the new habit of positive thoughts and choices that are made by yourself. Take accountability for your actions because their yours and once you do that learn and move forward, once that's established you alone will know who you are and what's your truth. It's all about priorities , living free for yourself , grow and be open and live in gratitude....start making MOVES that make you happy in return your reality will be the result of it !Peace love & fashion #truth😎 #roadtoessence #fashionstartup #fashionbuzztv #speaker #influencer #ICantEvenLie #inspo #motivate #mondays #inspiration #leader #focused #lifegoals #optimist #ｔｈｏｕｇｈｔｓ #dreamscometrue #blackgirlmagic #blogger #designer #Power #popculture #peoplescreatives #realshit #goals❤️ #goatworthy #growth

[cljsr73]

#chicagotoneworleansroadtrip #roadtoessence #justthetwoofus #finallyicanpost #holidayweekend #itsthe4thofjuly #soon (at Memphis Central Station)

[davidduaneofficialblog-blog]

#RoadToEssence 💪🏽 Checkout our interview with @teedramoses from our @essencefest experience 2015 ✨ Click the 🔗 in @MFWERadio's bio to watch the full interview (www.MFWERadio.com) cc: @davidduane✨ #DavidDuane #TeedraMoses #OnAirWithDavidDuane #MyFierceWingsRadio #MediaPersonality #Correspondent #Host #OnAir #OnCamera #Live #Philadelphia #NewYorkCity #LosAngeles #NewOrleans #EssenceFestival

[mfweradio]

#RoadToEssence 💪🏽 Checkout our sit-down with @chloeandhalle from our @essencefest experience 2016 ✨ Click the 🔗 in our bio to watch the full interview ✨ #DavidDuane #OnAirWithDavidDuane #MyFierceWingsRadio #MediaPersonality #Correspondent #Host #OnAir #OnCamera #Live #Philadelphia #NewYorkCity #LosAngeles #NewOrleans #EssenceFestival

[naturalbabydol]

Hey everyone it #Colgatetotal Tuesday. In efforts to stay healthy and maintain our personal wellness the boys and I are riding our bikes twice a day. Once after lunch and again after dinner. All roads lead to the @essencemag music festival. Stay tuned as we take you on our journey. #ad #sponsored #essencefestival #roadtoessence @colgatesmile

[thoughtsofdapperj]

Road to Essence: #Essencefest

Road to Essence: #Essencefest

            On May 17, 2014, I was able to get a head start on interning at WHUR

WHUR 96.3 fm. Howard University Radio

by assisting in the Road to Essence event. My fellow intern & good friend Mariya Moseley (@leochild93 on twitter & IG)

Mariya & I in the meet & greet line

deserves all the credit for this story because I had no clue about the event. She told me about it that Friday morning and I figured I had nothing better to do on Saturday so why not. When I saw the flyer, the two artists that had me excited were Raheem DeVaughn and Marsha Ambrosius. I’m fans of both but it’s crazy that 3 weeks ago Mariya and I met Raheem for the hip hop caucus event (see last article for recap) so I was like man we just keep running into him.

                WHUR flyer for the road to essence festival event

            The event was from 12-6 in the Wal-Mart parking lot in Laurel, Maryland. The event was free and I’m telling you, other than Black Friday, I have never seen a more packed Wal-Mart. It took 15 minutes just to find parking. I got there around 1pm and right away I got to work. Mariya and I were at the WHUR Table giving out free raffle tickets for a free makeup bag sponsored by My Black is beautiful. Our table attracted everyone as we must have given out easily over 200 tickets. While we were working, the DJ was spinning the hits from Cupid Shuffle to Cha Cha slide to keep the crowd involved. There were people speaking such as Atlanta Housewife Cynthia Bailey (twitter & IG @Cynthiabailey10) who hosted the fashion show and performances by Wayna (twitter @waynamusic). Although the crowd was hype for them, when Raheem took the stage everyone went crazy.

            Since Raheem is a hometown hero, he arguably had the loudest reaction. He performed classics hits such as Customer and Guess who loves you more. After a few more songs, he got off the stage and went to his meet & greet. After his performance however, WHUR personality Nikki Strong (twitter and IG @IAMNikkiStrong) came to the WHUR table to give out the free makeup bags. She really liked our enthusiasm as we were able to talk and take pictures with her. 

From Left to right: Mariya, Nikki Strong and yours truly.

 Since we were able to get our work done, we were able to go and meet Raheem. Although the line to meet him was huge, Mariya and I found a way near the front of the line and got our pictures. He did say it was cool that we were meeting him again in such a short amount of time. He told me to keep doing my thing and who knows if I meet him again in the near future, I have to get the interview.

Raheem DeVaughn and I

            After working for about two hours in the hot sun, Mariya & I needed some food. Although this event was free, there was no free food provided, Wal-Mart was the closest place that had food. As we were getting ready to take a lunch break, Ms. Darlene Jackson gave us her VIP passes and told us to go behind the stage for food. Man they had everything from sandwiches, fried chicken, fruit, cookies and a variety of drinks. I felt like we were living the glamorous life as we got to indulge in good food.

            While we were in the back eating, I met Cynthia Bailey and she is really cool in person which isn’t the norm when meeting a Reality TV Star.  After that Mariya & I were recapping the day saying how blessed we were and what would put the icing on top would be meeting Marsha Ambrosius. As we continued to talk, I turn around said “Oh My God”, there’s Marsha literally across from us just chilling. I’m like wow we have perfect timing man. We were able to get pictures and I asked her a few questions. 

Marsha Ambrosius & I

One question I was trying to ask was “Now that OutKast is back together, will you link up with them because The Art of Storytellin’ Pt. 4 is still a classic?” As she heard “Now that OutKast is back together…” she immediately yelled No Floetry is not getting back together. She told me that if I knew what happened back the scenes, I would never want Floetry to reunite. She added that they made great music together but let’s leave it at that.  After that I asked her would you work with OutKast again since they are performing together again, she said if they hit me up, I’m down. Then we were talking about how she came to GHOE in2011 and killed the stage but how she was mad that Wale (who also performed at GHOE in 2011) left the show for another show so they couldn’t do Diary. She said jokingly when she sees Wale, she would check him.

            Afterwards, she went on stage and she is by far the best female performer I’ve ever seen. She did a little bit of everything from Far Away, "Hope She Cheats On You (With A Basketball Player), Say Yes and she performed her new single Run off her album which will drop in the summer. After watching her perform, we helped clean up and ended the day with success. I only wonder what will happen for the rest of the summer if blessings like this continue to happen.

Thanks for reading as always. Before I close the article, I got to shout out my man Kevin (IG @_240) because he was there and it’s good to catch up with good friends. Also shout out to Brandon Standard (IG @jroc_drumming) a fellow HBCU journalist who I met at the event, keep grinding my dude and we have to link up before the summer is out.

Left to right: Brandon, Me and Mariya.

Since this is my first article since school let out, I want to say congrats to 2014 on graduating, I’m proud of you, now it’s my turn next year. New content soon and by June, I will revamp the site so stay tuned.

Until next time, be blessed, be safe and remember your purpose. Know your why and flourish. Let’s be great together.

[cljsr73]

#roadtoessence #amtrak #latenight #earlymornings #shenanigans #tgif (at Mississippi)

[davidduaneofficialblog-blog]

#RoadToEssence 💪🏽 Checkout our interview with @raheem_devaughn from our @essencefest experience 2015 ✨ Click the 🔗 in @MFWERadio's bio to watch the full interview (www.MFWERadio.com) cc: @davidduane✨ #DavidDuane #RaheemDevaughn #OnAirWithDavidDuane #MyFierceWingsRadio #MediaPersonality #Correspondent #Host #OnAir #OnCamera #Live #Philadelphia #NewYorkCity #LosAngeles #NewOrleans #EssenceFestival

[mfweradio]

#RoadToEssence 💪🏽 Checkout our sit-down with @sevyn from our @essencefest experience 2015 ✨ Click the 🔗 in our bio to watch the full interview ✨ #DavidDuane #OnAirWithDavidDuane #MyFierceWingsRadio #MediaPersonality #Correspondent #Host #OnAir #OnCamera #Live #Philadelphia #NewYorkCity #LosAngeles #NewOrleans #EssenceFestival

[cljsr73]

#thebridge #underwater #neworleans #roadtoessence (at Louisiana)

[davidduaneofficialblog-blog]

#RoadToEssence 💪🏽 Checkout our interview with @sevyn from our @essencefest experience 2015 ✨ Click the 🔗 in @MFWERadio's bio to watch the full interview (www.MFWERadio.com) cc: @davidduane✨ #DavidDuane #OnAirWithDavidDuane #MyFierceWingsRadio #MediaPersonality #Correspondent #Host #OnAir #OnCamera #Live #Philadelphia #NewYorkCity #LosAngeles #NewOrleans #EssenceFestival

[mfweradio]

#RoadToEssence 💪🏽 Checkout our sit-down with @tweet_ from our @essencefest experience 2015 ✨ Click the 🔗 in our bio to watch the full interview ✨ #DavidDuane #OnAirWithDavidDuane #MyFierceWingsRadio #MediaPersonality #Correspondent #Host #OnAir #OnCamera #Live #Philadelphia #NewYorkCity #LosAngeles #NewOrleans #EssenceFestival

[mfweradio]

#RoadToEssence 💪🏽 Checkout our sit-down with @mskellyprice from our @essencefest experience 2015 ✨ Click the 🔗 in our bio to watch the full interview ✨ #DavidDuane #OnAirWithDavidDuane #MyFierceWingsRadio #MediaPersonality #Correspondent #Host #OnAir #OnCamera #Live #Philadelphia #NewYorkCity #LosAngeles #NewOrleans #EssenceFestival

[mfweradio]

#RoadToEssence 💪🏽 Checkout our sit-down with @ericbellinger from our @essencefest experience 2016 ✨ Click the 🔗 in our bio to watch the full interview ✨ #DavidDuane #OnAirWithDavidDuane #MyFierceWingsRadio #MediaPersonality #Correspondent #Host #OnAir #OnCamera #Live #Philadelphia #NewYorkCity #LosAngeles #NewOrleans #EssenceFestival

[mfweradio]

We're on the #RoadToEssence so let's kick it off with our interview w/ @bmorebrave from @essencefest 2015 ✨ Click the 🔗 in our bio to watch the full interview ✨ #DavidDuane #OnAirWithDavidDuane #MyFierceWingsRadio #MediaPersonality #Correspondent #Host #OnAir #OnCamera #Live #Philadelphia #NewYorkCity #LosAngeles #NewOrleans #EssenceFestival