Friday at the Kent Hotel
The Kent, 1131 Collins Avenue, Miami Beach, Florida 33139


6'9 showing his flexibility

I did not take notes and since I spent eight hours on Friday and seventeen hours on Saturday at the hotel, I am not even going to pretend that I can remember every conversation or the order thereof. I will expect the two Miami entries to change as I remember more details.

Familiar Faces
On Friday, I drove down, found a parking spot and headed to the beach to look for the planned splash party. Fortunately, Chris had lent me a cell phone and I called Donnell. He said they had just arrived at the hotel, so I headed back over there. Many people were in the lobby with a lot of luggage.

The people whose names I know that were at the Kent are: Michelle, Dee Dee, Mike Muse, his girlfriend Cherone, Halima, Donnell Floyd, his sons Donnell Jr., Derek, and Donte, DP and his girlfriend Arielle (spelling?), Bobby Smoot - substituting for Doc and Bobby's sister Tracy, Godfather, Lorenzo, Mike Smith - substituting at the last minute for Stomp who had a family emergency, Smoke, Jacques, Nephew, Jauhar and his kids, 6'9 and his business partner at Seek Abundance, Angie, RE Angie, Tim (LJ) and his brother Roosevelt and their cousin Darrell, Pinky, Tata, Shaun (female), Slim Goodie, Marquis, Googie, Los, Tony (band security), and Mara.
Slim Goodie adds: 6'9's business partner is named Nikiya and he's the CEO of Seek Abundance, by the way which urban clothing Donnell and the crew were wearing in the video. Along with other Verizon co-workers like L-Boogie, David, Jauhar's business partner, a girl named Chanel and Dana. Lastly some Miamians.
Jauhar said about forty people came down.
In addition, Yvette and Felecia came down and Black Heart and 02.
Sharmba Mitchell was already down, doing his training here - he came by on Saturday.
Staff - Jesse Vaughan (director), Marcus Smith (camera man), Shelle Haynesworth (producer), Maria Romera (casting director and head of wardrobe), two wardrobe people - Omar and an older woman I never spoke with, Cindy (make up), three Black men and a white woman (don't know what their names or jobs were except that one is the playback man, and the woman said she didn't want to be on camera if I could help it), a middle aged blonde white man who was #1 on the camera crew, and three young white men along with a young Hispanic woman on the camera crew.
Mr. Cheeks came by on Saturday with an entourage.
The other talent consisted of four dancers: Sookie (Puerta Rican, she didn't speak much English so Maria translated for her), two Black women - one named Christine, one named Simone and another Hispanic woman named Elizabeth (there was a picture of her on the collage board at Mango's) - she was so nice and down to earth that I thought she was a staffer at first, not one of the dancers, despite being so physically attractive.


While sitting in the lobby, I talked with Godfather for a bit. DP played checkers; he played a number of games of checkers over the weekend.

Nephew and DP playing Checkers
They were setting up the band's instruments on the outdoor patio. They played the PA from July 9th - I recognized it from Donnell asking Halima to dance during Cleva on the recording.

I asked Mike Smith what was up with his hair, he laughed. I asked him about his being a former boxer. I talked with Smoke again about his friend not being his girlfriend. I told him I wish I had known that earlier because she is quite attractive.

The Hibiscis Room served as the production room. I really regret that I didn't just hang out in there for far more on Friday. They worked on wardrobe with all of the talent - the men are all wearing Seek Abundance gear in the video. Jesse liked the outfit that Halima wore - it is the same outfit in the performance picture for this entry (but she also wore sunglasses at the time).

Donnell and Halima went in a car to shoot the first scene. Jesse said I shouldn't come along because they were shooting on the waterfront and the city didn't really want them to do that. They might have their cameras seized if they were caught.

Mike Muse showed a bunch of people his website, Rearview2.Com. He discussed its nuances. Mike also discussed the picture of me with Rudy Ray Moore on the blog. I said I have a picture with my friend Clarence "Blowfly" Reid. He thought they were the same person, which is not true. Here is me and Blowfly:

Picture Copyright Jordan Rich, taken (probably taken by Shelden Goldberg) at Pandisc in January 1999.
Blowfly is a Miami native. I interviewed him at Pandisc Records, his current label, and they offered me an internship at the end of the interview. He worked in the warehouse at the time as well. We became good friends - he's one of the nicest people you could ever meet. Not the greatest driver though. My co-workers at Pandisc told me a story about how TK Records had given him a Cadillac. He ran out of gas on the train tracks and thought he could just go back and get his car the next day. Of course, a train hit it. While I worked at Pandisc, I sang back up on two bonus tracks for the re-issue of Blowfly for President, Pussy Whipped and TWBN (The World's Baddest N*gger). You can recognize my voice on TWBN.

Donnell talked with Nephew and told him to have the band ready for the performance at 8:15 PM and to start without him and Halima if they weren't back by 8:30 PM. He and Halima were back a little before then. During the set up/sound check, RE Angie played congas; she was not bad. DP called her "Jungle Boogie". Below is the setlist to the performance. I filmed the entire peformance. Marcus also filmed parts - with actual film rather than video, but he did a good job of staying out of my way. Googie worked the sound. I did not see him again after the show.

Mike Muse, Godfather, Halima, Lorenzo, Donnell, Bobby Smoot, DP, Jacques
Picture is a screenshot from video taken by me.

First Set
1) Halima-led Rodgers & Hart's My Funny Valentine - really excellent
Mike said, "When we hit that air pocket (on their flight), some of you all got saved."
2) Mike-led John Legend's Ordinary People
3) Percussion solo while Donnell did announcements
4) Mike-led Toto's Georgy Porgy
5) Percussion Solo
6) Mike-led Bobby Valentino's Slow Down
7) Donnell-led "___ Is in the house"
8) Halima-led Erykah Badu's Cleva
9) Mike-led Prince's Take Me With You
10) Donnell-led Hold the Note
11) Donnell-led "Hey ay, Ho oh"
12) Donnell-led "Do it for the ladies/fellas, Oh my God!"
13) Donnell-led Brown & White / Ride Out
Donnell said, "This is where we found Halima, right down the street in Fort Lauderdale. The land of Geechee Dan."
Halima said, "To my DC family, Thank y'all for loving me, for extending your love to me"
14) Halima-led Fantasia's Free Yourself - excellent as usual
Donnell said, "we don't have a DJ, Halima will be our DJ."
15) Halima-led Alicia Keys' Diary

A guy who said he's from San Francisco said his driver told him about the band. He asked for a business card and talked to Halima for a little.

Second Set
Donnell had his three sons Donnell Jr., Derek, and Donte and Marquis Melvin come up to perform.
Mike said, "With all the Ds I might as well stay up here, Dickie. Can I stay up here?"
Donnell said, "What are you, scared? We want these youngsters to have five seconds of time."
1) Donte played on the congas, while Donnell said, "I'll get them started since they are scared." He rapped Common's The Corner
2) Halima did a little improving
3) Marquis said, "I am from West Virginia University football." He sang a song, his own composition, Secret "I'll be wanting you baby, I just can't get you off my mind, I will take my time and do it right, I can feel now..."
Donnell said, "I thought you was a youngster, now I'm not so sure. Jauhar, this is your man? Listen to the subject matter. How old are you, eighteen? You're supposed to be singing Mr. Telephone Man. I guess he got no playstation."
The youngsters left the stage.
Donnell talked bout the video shoot tomorrow. He said, "6'9 is already a movie star, I just don't know which movie you were in."
4) Halima-led Faith Evans' Again
5) Mike-led John Legend's Used to Love U
Donnell said, "Since we're out with a bunch of old heads in South Beach, we don't need to worry about the youngins..."
6) Mike-led Rare Essence's Take Me Out to the Go-Go
7) Mike-led Rare Essence's Lock It / Mike-led Sam Cooke's Chain Gang (same music)
8) Donnell-led Lap Dance
Donnell said, "We're going to try to make this an annual event. Remember the video shoot strts at 8 AM when you go to Wet Willies. Don't go with LJ or anyone with a LoKee shirt on."
Halima's aunts and their friends were there. I filmed her introducing them to me. I also filmed her shirt, which she made herself.
Donnell said, "Halima is that your crew and you aren't going to introduce anyone? We love Halima, she's never coming back."
There were a few local Latinos in the audience, they sure got down. Another guy who asked me who the band was. Jauhar said they turned away 200 people who wanted to watch the performance (because it would have been unfair to those who paid). Nephew said that the PA could be heard for blocks away and that people really took Halima's singing.

Tata said she wasn't sure she wanted to go out or get up early for the video shoot due to heat exhaustion. I know exactly how she felt - the heat completely took away my appetite. I only ate one meal each day on Friday and on Saturday. I left without going to Wet Willies because I had to get up so early for the video shoot.