So Friday night I hit up Gotham Hall for the Heinken Red Star Soul stop through New York City. And even though I arrived almost an hour early, there was still a line around the corner. Thankfully I was guestlist status and had  no trouble getting in. The press room was packed with my fellow bloggers, including Rae & Gabe, Cocoabella, Dallas Penn, Phaon and of course Blogxilla.

The line-up was cool LUDACRIS, ESTELLE, WALE and BIZ MARKIE & DJ D-NICE were all set to take the stage and comedian GODFREY had hosting on lock. And from the looks of the line outfront, everyone was thinking the same thing I was, This is New York, some monster guest has to be coming out.

The press room was organized chaos with all the entire line-up coming through as well as EGYPT and the adorable MELANIE FIONA – who was kind enough to sing for us. But I had to skip-out early in order to get into the press pit before the start of the show.

Godfrey is not funny. Don’t get me wrong, he’s got some good jokes. But just as a funny dude? Nope.

Wale got things started – now those of you that follow me on twitter know that I’m not yet a fan of the freshman from DC. In my mind, he’s yet to show me anything that wins me over. The crowd was mixed – bobbing their heads along to some cuts and turning to their blackberry’s on others. But in all fairness, I will say this ‘Nike Boots’ knocks HARD live.

Biz Markie was able to keep the crowd bumpin as he pulled double duty on the 1’s & 2’s as well as performed his classic ‘Just a Friend’.

And then there’s Estelle – whom was the surprise of the night. This was my first time seeing her live and she did not disappoint. She looked great, sounded great and her entire set was engaging and entertaining. Not to mention her boots were FIERCE.

This was my fourth time seeing Ludacris. But as always the MC from down south did a great job. It’s easy to forget just how many freakin hits dude has. Always lots of energy and of course his personality is infectious.

But the highlight of the night was easily the surprise guest appearance by NAS who emerged just in time to do his verse on Luda’s ‘I Do It for Hip Hop’. God’s son stayed a while longer and did his classics ‘New York State of Mind’ and ‘I Ruled The World’ among others…

All in all, it was a long and fun night.

Props to SowmyaK for the look.