Singer/songwriter/musician Prince reminded everyone of his hometown by showing support for the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx on Wednesday. The 57-year-old rocker performed a three-hour concert for the reigning champions, perhaps one hour for every year the team has won a championship. 3rdEyeGirl wasn’t the rhythm section this time. Instead, Prince had former NPG drummer Kirk Johnson and bassist Mono Neon. The set included “Kiss”, “When Doves Cry”, “Sign O The Times”, “1,000 x’s and O’s” and covers of Michael Jackson’s “Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough” and The Time’s “Cool”. After more than twenty years in New Orleans, the Essence Music Festival is going global. The festival has entered a three year partnership with eThekwini Municipality to host the Essence Music Festival in Durban, South Africa, in 2016 and 2017, Essence Communications Inc. President Michelle Eubanks said yesterday. Exact dates will be announced in a few weeks. Eubanks nixed concerns that the partnership will negatively affect the New Orleans event. The Essence Festival Durban will follow the multi-day format of the New Orleans event, which draws 450,000 people annually over the Independence Day holiday weekend and has an economic impact of $200 million locally. R&B star Usher and hip hop legend Nas have released a single and video “Chains”, which addresses injustice and police brutality. In the visuals for the song, portraits of victims of police brutality stream across the screen as well and their names, ages and stories. The images of boys and girls as well as men and women, from Travyon Martin and Sean Bell, serve to stress the point Nas makes with one bar “We’ve got a problem that needs to be solved”. Indeed we do.