ESSENCE Fest descended upon New Orleans this past weekend for an event that hosted conferences, seminars, panel discussions, and star-studded concerts. As hyped as fans were to get loose in the Big Easy, there were a few moments that did have fans a little choked up with emotion. On Saturday evening, Bobby Brown and the New Edition crew of RBRM—Ronnie, Bobby, Ricky, and Mike—were rocking the stage for a screaming audience of fans that spanned generations.
According to ESSENCE, Brown couldn't leave the stage without honoring his daughter, the late Bobbi Kristina Brown whom he shared with his late ex-wife, Whitney Houston. He grasped a pendant on the necklace he was wearing and said, “I keep one of my kids right here with me. Her name is Bobbi Kristina. I keep all of [my kids] close to my heart, but this one right here, she stays around my neck and right there near my heart.”
"And sometimes I just, you know...I know I'm going off the cuff and they're probably mad at me because they're up there doing this sh*t right here," he said of his group members while mimicking their two-step dances. “When I want to talk to my daughter, when I want to let her know how I’m feeling, I scream from a dome like this." Then, the guitarist broke out in a solo before the singer returned to add, "I know I’m going to love her for the rest of my life."