Watch Erykah Badu pay tribute to Roberta Flack at intimate London DJ set

nme.com:

Erykah Badu honoured the late great singer-songwriter Roberta Flack during her one-off DJ set in London for her birthday. See the video below.Last Thursday (February 27), Badu celebrated her 54th birthday by playing a surprise DJ set at Camden’s Jazz Cafe under the alias DJ Lo Down Loretta Brown.London’s own Keyrahh was the opening DJ and, when the ‘Bag Lady’ singer got on stage, she thanked her for warming up the crowd and introduced Rashad Smith (aka producer Tumbling Dice) whom she hailed as “the original hitmaker from New York that had the ’90s streets on fire”.She then took over the decks for an experimental, eclectic set while on “mushrooms”.An impromptu Q&A session afterward.

A fan praised Badu for the Texas singer’s 2012 Robert Glasper collaboration ‘Afro Blue’ from his ‘Black Radio’ album, causing Badu to point out that the lyrics were originally written by Flack.“Roberta!” Badu began to shout into the mic. “Roberta! […] Some say there are two certain deaths that we can experience: the first death is the one where we stop breathing and cease to live on the planet.

The second death is the last time somebody says your name so, Roberta!”Then, she launched into song, singing Flack’s iconic hit ‘Killing Me Softly With His Song’ before throwing up a peace sign and leaving.

Check out the footage here:A post shared by NME (@nmemagazine)Roberta Flack died on February 24 in her New York City home. She was most widely recognised as a pioneer of R&B, being the iconic voice behind tracks like ‘The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face’, ‘Feel Like Makin’ Love’ and ‘Killing Me Softly With His Song’.At the time of writing, no cause of death has been revealed.