Liberty City Press JULY 17 — JULY 24, 2016
\\\ point
Quest (not feeling the) Love Time to reclaim our July 4th birthright
O
K. We really did not intend to write another essay on the travesty that has become our annual celebration of the Fourth of July. Loyal readers of The Point already understand the pet peeve that this is for us: a holiday that we should own has become hijacked by Macy’s in New York and the Boston Pops. In Boston, there was Demi Lavato, Nick Jonas, and country-and-western superstars Little Big Town. In New York City, there was Kenny Chesney, Pitbull and Meghan Trainor. All A-list performers. And what did Philly bring to the table for the Fourth? What A-list performers took to the stage to compete with Boston and NYC for the eyes of the nation? Uh, that would be none. The marquee performers were Leslie Odom, Jr. and Leon Bridges. Odom’s claim to fame is starring as Aaron Burr in the Broadway hit “Hamilton” and Leon Bridges is described on the Welcome America website as the American R&B and soul singer/songwriter best known for his song “Coming Home.” Uh sorry, these guys
are talented and from Philly but they are pretty much unknown to America. Oh yeah: there was also the performer Yazz the Greatest, who we love on the TV series “Empire” but is only an A-list rapper on that show. As we said at the top, we were not going to go down this road as we have done this before but then came Questlove’s twitter rant against Mayor Kenney and we had to engage. But first some background. Former mayor Michael Nutter, a big fan of Questlove’s band, The Roots, anointed them in 2009 as the house band for Wawa’s Welcome America early in his term. We believe this move led to the minimization of our Fourth of July celebration to a second, if not third tier celebration. Mayor Kenney canned The Roots for this year’s Fourth, which led to this Facebook critique of the celebration by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, as reported by Daily News’ Clout: “‘So uh July Fif. How y’all feeling Philadelphia? That’s what y’all wanted . . . right? … That was arrogance in the HIGHEST order courtesy of your new leader. In our face it was
We’re pretty sure that the Spring Fling Committee at the University of Pennsylvania could’ve gotten these artists without breaking a sweat.
Questlove thinks the city could have done better this 4th, we’ve long agreed. Photo by Joe Mabel via Wikimedia Commons
‘hey we wanna try something new’ we were like ‘not sure if you’re aware of the precedent we’ve been setting but unless you try something ‘better’ you might not wanna lose ‘cool points’ w your city on something you can easily for your benefit GET cool points from. We have the talent. We have the creativity. We have the know how and experience and more importantly THE RESOURCES!!!’” You might have the creativity QL but what exactly did “THE RESOURCES” get us? It didn’t get us a
national TV contract even when our tallest building runs one of those networks. The Roots last July 4th concert had these marquee artists: Jennifer Nettles, Miguel, MKTO, and Zella Day. We’re not sure what resources it took to get these artists but we’re pretty sure that the Spring Fling Committee at the University of Pennsylvania could’ve gotten these artists without breaking a sweat. So we support Mayor Kenney’s moving away from a local house band, but we reject substituting Continued on page 2 JULY 17-24, 2016
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