00:00Hey, this is your boy, Thomas Miles, nephew Tommy, the official host of the Essence Festival.
00:08This is my sixth year. I am considered the ambassador of the Essence Festival,
00:13and I promise you, if you have not come to one Essence Festival, you have no idea what you're missing.
00:17Today is all about Essence Festival confessions.
00:21That's where we let you know exactly what goes on behind the stage and things that you have no earthly idea that goes on.
00:26That's behind the stage, on the side. You won't believe the schoolers, and they're going to drop them. Here it is.
00:32Hi, I'm Yolanda Sanguini, entertainment editor at Essence.com, and this will be my fifth Essence Festival.
00:38So come closer, because I'm going to tell you a little backstage tidbit.
00:41So back in 2011, Kanye West had come back to the Essence Festival.
00:46It was his second Essence Festival performance.
00:48So afterwards, I was like, I have to be Kanye West. I have to be Kanye West.
00:52Artists don't really want a lot of people backstage.
00:53But here I am, pretending to be, like, the photo assistant, right?
00:57So I'm sitting backstage, and everyone's been like, clear out, everybody, clear out!
01:01I was like, uh-uh, I am not clearing out, because I have to meet Kanye West.
01:05Do you understand?
01:06So then, so then I was, like, you know, pretending to be the photo assistant,
01:10trying to be incognito, you know, trying to see, like, I'm trying to be invisible woman.
01:14I was like, you can't see me, you can't see me, you can't see me.
01:17Did she just say that?
01:18I waited, I laid in the cut, and then I saw him here in a red velvet outfit.
01:24And I said, I made my move.
01:26Uh-oh!
01:27I was like, Kanye!
01:29Oh my God, Kanye!
01:31He was like, oh, come on, let's take a picture.
01:32And he was just really, really sweet.
01:34It was wonderful.
01:34It was one of my favorite memories, because I did really suck at him.
01:37I had to meet him.
01:38So my team tends to deal with a lot of the, you know, special VIPs or any kind of, you know, executives or clients.
01:49You know, after a few days, one of these executives that we were taking care of, you know,
01:52I think that he felt like he'd had it by at that point.
01:55You know, he knew the festival down, and he didn't really need us anymore.
01:59On some state to you?
02:00And I think that as executive, he wanted to just kind of experience the Superdome that night on his own,
02:05and he literally ditched me.
02:06So I'm seven months pregnant.
02:08I am literally breathing like a beached seal on the ocean.
02:14And I'm out of breath, and then one of the other members on my team, she's like, you know,
02:18get in the golf cart, we'll run, we'll find him, and then you sit here, I'll run up ahead.
02:22And she's running, we're all running.
02:24And finally, we found him, like, half an hour later.
02:26And I'm pretty sure that he was doing it on purpose.
02:29Got the feelings hurt, dude.
02:31It hurt all that side.
02:32He just wanted to have a few alone moments, and I can appreciate that.
02:36I just appreciate the love of you.
02:38This is what they call funky.
02:41Okay, that's stupid.
02:43I'm Sharia Jackson, Essence Lifestyle and Relationships Editor,
02:46and I'm a five-year Essence Festival goer, four times as a working staff member,
02:51and one time as just a good old festival enjoyer.
02:55One of my favorite Essence Festival memories, I'm really, it's sort of a,
03:00could have been a tricky moment in my life.
03:02I blame Beyonce.
03:03I probably could have almost lost my job.
03:05Starting to get stupid, man.
03:06Because when Beyonce performed two years ago, I'm a stand.
03:10So, you know, we got these great seats.
03:12Beyonce is within 20 feet of me jamming.
03:15And they're like, security guards are like, stay in your seat.
03:17So I'm like, okay, I'm sitting on the edge.
03:19I am jamming.
03:21And across the way, I noticed a fellow stand.
03:23And when you're a fellow Beyonce stand, we love each other.
03:25So I was like, look at him.
03:26He is jamming.
03:27I'm jamming.
03:28Forget about the security guard.
03:29I go over there and just give him a little love.
03:31How you doing?
03:31Oh my gosh, she's amazing.
03:33Yes.
03:33No, she didn't.
03:34Yes.
03:35Security guard comes up on me.
03:36Hey, you got to get back to your seat.
03:38No, he didn't.
03:39Okay.
03:39She's a little aggressive.
03:41So I go back to my seat.
03:43Beyonce starts to perform Grown Woman.
03:45And I don't know what happens to me, but all of a sudden,
03:48I'm singing all the Grown Woman lyrics.
03:50But instead of singing them to Beyonce,
03:52I'm singing them all to that security guard in her face.
03:54Because now she's decided to stand next to me since I moved around.
03:58So I'm like all in her face.
03:59I'm a Grown Woman.
04:01Could do whatever I want.
04:03Now we tripping.
04:05Then all of a sudden, I remembered that I'm kind of an editor at Essence,
04:08and my boss, and my boss's boss, and my boss's boss's boss is here.
04:12So maybe I don't want to be all in her face.
04:14So I bring it on down, and I just start to sing back to Beyonce.
04:18That's not it.
04:19We got more confessionals.
04:20Some of them look crazy, ain't it?
04:21But here's the real deal.
04:22If you are at the Essence Festival, you should be getting your groove on.
04:25If you are not here, I'm sorry.
04:26Make sure you get your ticket next time.
04:28But stay tuned to Essence Live so we can give you the 411 on what's going on
04:32for this entire Port of July weekend at the Essence Festival.
04:36We will make you feel like you're here.
04:38We will make you feel like you're here.
04:41We will make you feel like you're here.
04:42We will make you feel like you're here.
04:43We will make you feel like you're here.
04:44We will make you feel like you're here.
04:45We will make you feel like you're here.
04:46We will make you feel like you're here.
04:47We will make you feel like you're here.
04:48We will make you feel like you're here.
04:49We will make you feel like you're here.
04:50We will make you feel like you're here.
04:51We will make you feel like you're here.
04:52We will make you feel like you're here.
04:53We will make you feel like you're here.
04:54We will make you feel like you're here.
04:56We will make you feel like you're here.
04:58We will make you feel like you're here.
05:00We will make you feel like you're here.
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