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Thread started 07/20/99 7:28am

Report on Yahoo Awards performance/speeches

The show opened with "My Computer" with various interviews of artists playing over it.



Seal performed "Human Being" & "Crazy" as a beautiful acoustic set with only himself on lead vox and guitar and another guitar player.



Spike Lee presented the award for best Internet-only single. He mentioned that he had worked with both Public Enemy (on Do The Right Thing and He Got Game) and The Artist (on Girl 6). prince came on to accept the award
for The War. He was in his new-look beard and curly long hair with black sunglasses wearing a long-sleeved shirt with NPG written on the front.



His speech was as follows:



"Umm... Thank you. Let me first say I don't believe so much in the word best. I appreciate it. I appreciate appreciation. Art is perception. It's whatever peanut butters your jelly. This should read 'The NPG'. The New Power Generation helped me make this record. What
was cool about the song is that they didn't know what I would do. They just started jamming and I had some lyrics and I just started speaking and the song just kind of organically turned into what it turned into...
tonights so-called winner. One thing I wanted to say is uh... don't be fooled by the Internet. It's cool to get on the computer but don't let the computer get on you. It's cool to use the computer but don't let the computer use you. Y'all saw The Matrix. There's a war going on. The
battlefield is in the mind and the prize is the soul, so be careful. Thank you!"




(there was applause throughout and laughter when he mentioned The Matrix).



Later in the evening, prince would lose the award for best web site to the Beastie Boys. They played New World while showing pages from www.love4oneanother.com



The Artist then came back on to introduce Public Enemy. His long introduction included a plug for There's A Poison Goin' On (the new album) and lots of props to PE. Public Enemy performed "What What" and "Do You Wanna Go Our Way?" Unfortunately, PE was clearly not prepared to perform
these songs live. They rapped over the actual CD tracks, leading to a weird echo effect. Both Flavor and Chuck D messed up the lines of their songs. Chuck D even joked about that he didn't have the song down yet, but he's not touring yet.



In his speech afterwards, he gave props to prince for writing Slave on his face. He said that when prince did that, although many people thought him crazy, a light bulb went on in Chuck's mind. When he saw that, he said he
felt like "a Black man from 1866." Chuck also said that he called him "Prince from the Hood". He said that he lets them call him Prince but he doesn't let the 'shysters' called him that (referring to lawyers I think).



Flavor also gave props to prince in his own ummm... colourful way. The Artist comes on afterward and said,

"Listen to what their saying. Excuse the curse words, but listen to what they're saying. It's all in there,
alright?"
Flavor kept hugging prince and surprisingly, prince didn't look all that uncomfortable.



Flava also said he looks forward to recording music with him in the future. They literally had to drag Flavor Flav off the stage because he kept hugging prince and talking.



A little while later, Penn and Teller mentioned that they had to avoid a full side of the stage because they were setting it up. When they finally did cross to that side of the stage, everyone was excited to see the familiar symbol drum set. Penn and Teller introduced the 'surprise
performer' by saying

"He's received an award, he's presented an award but so far The Artist hasn't done what he does best... perform. Be prepared for the roof to be blown off of this place!".



prince performed with Larry Graham and "The original members of the Family Stone". He appeared on stage with a leather cap with a yellow stripe across the front on. He was also wearing a large hoop earing in his right ear.



He played organ to introduce The Jam and then rhythm guitar on the song. The band consisted of Morris Hayes on organ, Larry Graham on bass, Kirk Johnson on drums, Parker on saxophone, and Tina Graham and Kip on backup vocals. Jerry Martini, Cynthia Robinson, and Rose Stone (of the
Family Stone) were also part of the band. Following The Jam, the band launched into Free with Larry Graham on lead vocals. During the set, funk saxophonist Maceo Parker guested in the band and did a killer sax solo.



Unfortunately, the webcast was slightly marred by poor sound in which Larry Graham's bass and vocals were too slow compared with prince's voice and guitar.



Everyday People was then played with slightly more even sound.



Song list:



The Jam

Free

Everyday People




The show closed with Melky Sedeck and Wyclef Jean. Near the end of the show, Wyclef said:

"Yo, Prince is such a legend. It's such an honour to
play with sucha legend."
Wyclef's set literally lasted around an hour.



All in all, it was a great awards show and at least the webcast didn't crash once throughout the whole thing. I managed to catch to whole thing using the 128 kb/sec speed. The show is supposedly being archived at
broadcast.com, so if you missed it, be sure to check it out when it is set up!


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