00:00Hey, this is your boy Thomas Miles, Nephew Tommy, I am the official host of the Essence
00:07Festival. This is my sixth year, so I'm considered the ambassador of the Essence Festival. Today
00:12is all about Essence Festival confessionals, where we kind of give you some insight on
00:17what goes on behind the scene, because you have no earthly idea what goes on backstage,
00:22side of the stage. So today, we're giving you Essence Festival confessionals. You won't
00:27believe the stories that they're going to drop in. Here it is.
00:31Hi, I'm Corey Murray, Entertainment Director at Essence Magazine, and I've been going to
00:36the Essence Festival for 15 years, so I am a lifer. I love when we take over the city,
00:44and when I say we, I mean we, like us, our people, you know, the communities. We take
00:51over New Orleans, from the plane, from the restaurants, from the streets, everywhere.
00:58Not just the Superdome and the Convention Center. I mean, we are everywhere, and I love it.
01:03About two years ago, I was at the Marriott on Canal Street, and, you know, our people, you
01:08know, the folks, was converging in the hotel lobby like we do, which, you know, is what
01:13we do, and I saw this family, and I'm, not to generalize, but I'm sure they were probably
01:19from Ohio or somewhere. Did they just say that? They were, you know, they were white,
01:24clearly looked like they were on a nice family vacation. They were hugging their pillows,
01:29but they looked around and was like, oh my God. The man was holding his pillow like,
01:34what the hell, what do we get? And they had little kids. It was so cute, because they
01:40were just like, that's what they were doing. What's up? I didn't feel bad for them. I just,
01:50it was just laugh, because clearly they had no idea what was about to happen in New Orleans
01:55July 4th weekend. You got me. I'm with you on that. No doubt about it. But what I love most
02:01is seeing celebrities become real people. I think, of course, Aretha Franklin is the
02:06Queen of Soul. She is an icon. She is a legend. But she also is Auntie Riri. So when Auntie Aretha,
02:14Auntie Riri, came out at Essence Festival a few years ago, and all of a sudden you saw
02:18that she brought her purse with her. I was like, this, she not playing. Y'all not about
02:21to take not a dime from Auntie Riri today. See, this is what I'm talking about right here.
02:26She played all her classics, but she made sure that her purse was within eyesight. So I'm
02:30not mad at it. Girl, go ahead. Enjoy your show and make sure you got your money. I'm
02:36with you when you write. You write on this. I'm with you. I'm Charlie Penn, the Essence.com
02:41Relationships Editor, which means I have the pleasure of working with a lot of the celebrity
02:46couples. Believe it or not, Boris Kojo and Nicole Riri Parker are absolutely as adorable
02:51in real life as you think they are on the screen. Absolutely. OMG. And seeing them behind the scenes
02:58with each other is amazing because we already know that they're cute and they're so in love
03:03and they've been together. But a lot of times I think, you know, sometimes we think with
03:06these celebrity couples that they're just turning it on for the cameras. Not in their case.
03:11Last year at Essence Festival, I interviewed them twice at two different activations on the
03:15center stage. I was watching them. I was in the corner, like getting all mic'd up.
03:20When I look over and there's Boris Kojo and Nicole Riri Parker and he's seriously like
03:24checking her teeth. She's like shining his baldy. They're like glowing and looking at each
03:29other. Oh, you believe in any of you. And they're just like flirting and being all annoyingly
03:34cute. And I just looked over and I'm like, seriously? They're both that gorgeous and that
03:39adorable. And I looked over and they were just like so flirty and all that spice and all that
03:44fire was 100% there. And then they just walked out and shared the love.
Comments