{"id":6332,"date":"2019-06-17T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-17T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/in-pictures-erykah-badu-kali-uchis-light-up-smokin-grooves-at-the-queen-mary\/"},"modified":"2021-03-08T08:13:37","modified_gmt":"2021-03-08T16:13:37","slug":"in-pictures-erykah-badu-kali-uchis-light-up-smokin-grooves-at-the-queen-mary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/in-pictures-erykah-badu-kali-uchis-light-up-smokin-grooves-at-the-queen-mary","title":{"rendered":"IN PICTURES: Erykah Badu, Kali Uchis light up Smokin’ Grooves at the Queen Mary"},"content":{"rendered":"

Festival-goers showed up in droves to the Queen Mary to groove down by the water at Smokin’ Grooves Fest on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Smokin’ Grooves has a history<\/a> as the festival that first helped push R&B and soul out to massive crowds in 1996. After a revival, Smokin’ Grooves continued its comeback at the Queen Mary events park in Long Beach this weekend for the second year in a row.<\/p>\n

The event spotlighted the best in new-school and old-school R&B and soul, from the young 24-year-olds, Kali Uchis, Daniel Caesar and Ella Mai, to the 40-year-old headliners Usher and Erykah Badu.<\/p>\n

Among the diverse and young crowd, Tni Welch, from Boyle Heights, expressed her enjoyment of the laid-back vibe of the festival especially because this was her first time attending one.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t miss this. Seeing so many of my favorites in one line-up, I felt like it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,\u201d said Welch.<\/p>\n

But the event also drew plenty of expert-level festival-goers, including Ariel Austin, Tyra Coleman, Timmie Tee and Rickey Gibson II who snuck a $5 Little Caesars pizza onto the bus that took them to an event where the cheapest slice was $8.<\/p>\n

\u201cI already know they\u2019ll run out of toilet paper in the Porta Potties. I\u2019m holding it, and when Erykah Badu comes on I\u2019m peeing in a cup! This is not my first rodeo,\u201d said Timmie Tee, which caused the bus to erupt in laughter, while riders were cramped and standing.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The front-row crowd capturing Daniel Caesar. Photo by Sarahi Apaez.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Ella Mai charms the crowd with her energy and smiles. Photo by Sarahi Apaez.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Ariel Austin, Tyra Coleman, Timmie Tee and Rickey Gibson II from Inglewood wait for a shuttle to take them from Downtown Long Beach to the Queen Mary. Photo by Sarahi Apaez.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Festival-goers walk around in the smokin’ heat during Smokin’ Grooves Fest. Photo by Sarahi Apaez.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Ravyn Lenae takes the stage. Photo by Sarahi Apaez<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Kali Uchis, sings Just A Stranger while the music video, which was filmed in Long Beach, plays on the projector behind her. Photo by Sarahi Apaez.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Macs Vinson dancing and singing along to Kali Uchis in his summer festival fashion. Photo by Sarahi Apaez.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Jess Theadas and her girlfriends pose during Kali Uchis’ set. Photo by Sarahi Apaez.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Daniel Caesar, 24-year-old R&B\/soul singer-songwriter, lovingly sings the lyrics to Best Part. Photo by Sarahi Apaez.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Daniel Caesar. Photo by Sarahi Apaez.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Couples embrace as Daniel Caesar sings. Photo by Sarahi Apaez.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Festival-goers pose beside tunnel walls, waiting for foot traffic to die down to get their perfect photo. Photo by Sarahi Apaez.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Security guard Daniel Ariano admits he got a little fomo seeing everyone get his or her picture taken by the wall and wanted in on it too. Photo by Sarahi Apaez.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Ari Lennox grooves around during golden hour singing Night Drive while her audience chants. Photo by Sarahi Apaez.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Erykah Badu brings an electronic neo-soul experience to Smokin’ Grooves. Photo by Sarahi Apaez.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI couldn\u2019t miss this. Seeing so many of my favorites in one line-up, I felt like it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":251,"featured_media":70311,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,6],"tags":[172],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[1809],"class_list":["post-6332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","category-hi-lo","tag-music-festival","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/251"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6332"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=6332"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=6332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}