In addition to being some of the most talented artists in the world, many of this year's ESSENCE Festival performers are also dedicated family men.
This year’s ESSENCE Festival lineup is filled with amazing artists who are also celebrated for the way they are able to maintain flourishing professional careers while keeping their families at the top of the priority list.
ESSENCE Festival 2017 single-night tickets and ticket packages are on sale now! For more info and the latest news, visit our Festival page here.
We chatted with multitalented entertainer John Legend and Hip Hop mogul Master P about what some of the ways fatherhood has changed them and what it really means to be a dad. Hear what they had to say above and the be sure to grab your tickets to see these doting dads light up the stage, alongside more of the biggest names in music, at the 2017 ESSENCE Festival in New Orleans!
Hide Transcript
[MUSIC] Well I think fatherhood changed me in a sense that I want to be home more. I want to be there to help my wife and to be there as our daughter grows up. I've always believed That we want our kids to be smart. We want them to be kind. We want them to be leaders whether they're boys or girls. And we're going to hopefully give Luna all the tools that we can for her to be that way. It's a humbling thing to be a new father. You have more questions than you have answers, and I write about that sometimes in my songs. I'm excited to be on his journey And hopefully we can raise a person that can go on and do great things in the world. So for me, fatherhood is being there, spending time, not just giving money to your kids. There's a lot of fathers that make it, even the ones that are struggling they're struggling to make sure their kids Have something and I tell my kids all the time it's not about these material things. It's about having knowledge as a parent if we want our kids to be better than us then we have to spend that valuable time with them. If you have daughters you have to open the corridor up for them. You got to show them How a man treats a woman. And that's what I do with my girls, I want them to feel special. So I want them to know that when you get around a guy, that guy should do the same that your father is making sure that you're protected. Making sure that you feel like a queen. And for my boys, it's just a It's about, being there with them through good and bad times. So families gotta realize that kids remember. Have my father been in my life? Is he around? And even if a relationship don't work, you have made a lifetime committment to your kid. And so I feel like as an African American father, just a father in general that I've made a lifetime commitment. With my kids I have responsibility, it's not about me no more. So any fathers that's watching this during Father's Day, it's like, you know what, it's not about you. You know, like Chris Rock said, you know, "During father's day, you wait for that big piece of chicken." You know what I'm saying, that's all we get. We get the tie, some socks, and a big piece of chicken and we happy. But I'm just happy as a father knowing that, you know, when you talk about hip hop, a lot of us get stereotyped. But a lot of us love our kids and a lot of us change our lives for our kids. I mean I know I have. [MUSIC]
