The Jay-Z Concert review
Maybe it's because I've watched Fade to Black too much. Maybe it's because his performance at the Urban Music Festival in 2004 (where I last saw him live) was near faultless. Maybe it's seeing all the 'I Declare War' concert and the Reasonable Doubt 10 year anniversary show footage on YouTube. Maybe it was because I was tired. Maybe I was overwhelmed after warming up for the biggest act in HipHop. Maybe I was expecting too much...but Jigga's performance last night at the NIA in Birmingham while head and shoulders above a large amount of other live HipHop performances I've seen; wasn't as special as I would have hoped.
It wasn't that he didn't perform his hits or that the pyro flashes and video wall didn't visually take his performance to that next level; it's just that it didn't feel 'magic'...I didn't get those goosebumps I got while watching Fade to Black or watching him at the UMF.
My Jigga concert experience started at 4.30 ish when I arrived at the venue to set up and check it out. Birmingham's one way system makes finding anything a task never mind when they close off the main junction to the M6. Jumping on the CDJs from doors open, the crowd came in fast. People had been waiting up to 3 hours to get in - the anticipation was buidling and the vibes were already nice.
Soon as I was done, I grabbed a drink backstage and bumped into Memphis Bleek (literally - sorry Bleek) but as soon as I could, I went out and joined the future MissisJam in the audience and checked out the support acts of Akala, Kano and Lupe Fiasco. They all did a good job warming up the crowd with only deejay Doug losing the crowd for a while with a not well thought out selection that included the Chemical Brothers, a weird remix of TI's What You Know and Gary Glitter!
Lupe held it well, getting a good response for Kick Push () & Daydream but most notable out of the support acts was Akala who brought Cassell The Beatmaker along with him to supply some live drums to Akala's MOBO award winning, albeit raspy, flow.
Decked in a Bape hoodie, black T-Shirt, Aviators and Timbs, Jigga hit the stage solo at 9.40 after an intro of some of his best guest spots by his new tour DJ (and my favourite mixtape deejay) Green Lantern.
Kicking off with What More Can I Say and then Public Service Announcement, he started strong and tore the roof clean off (). He continued through the hits (of which there are many) eventually bringing out Memphis Bleek to back him up after the first 5 minutes. All the way through, all 13000 of the sell out the Brum crowd were well and truly up for it! Even though the noise they made was deafening, Jigga still commented that they weren't as live as Glasgow were the night before (according to Akala, Jigga had commented during the Glasgow gig that the Scottish crew were the best crowd of his whole European tour so far). I don't know if it was the fact that the crowd wasn't as lively as he had hoped or if something else pissed him off but he seemed to take his foot off the gas at that point.
At the UMF, my diamond was in the air for the full 90 minutes, I was rhyming along to all the words so much I lost my voice. The vibe was electric. In Brum, it felt like Jay was going through the motions, like it was just another date on his tour. The crowd still lapped it up as you can see before he went off stage for the first time ; got a great response when talking to the crowd just after performing Big Pimpin (seeing Dame on the video wall was hilarious) as you can see and during/after performing his last track of the set Encore () - but having seen him before, Birmingham got a Jay at 70%.
After all said and done, the show was a really strong one (MissisJam rated it, as did the drunk couple who sat next to us having won tickets on Rampage's show) but with promises of special guests, surprises and I expect, the magic I was hoping for in Brum; the search for tickets to go and see him at the Royal Albert Hall in London is now well and truly on...
What are you lot saying? Did you go? What did you think? Did I just set my hopes too high?
Comments
Post your commentok, a little less happy now. was thinking of going wembley but it's all seated. thought "nahhh, stop getting carried away, nas wont be there! and neither will beyonce for an spw", but apparently they both were!
Such a shame that Jigga saved his A game for the capital city...
Totally right jam, I knew this would happen! should have gone LDN instead!!
Was nothing near fade to black standard, ok i knew that would never happen but you know what i mean!!!
Now im hearing he bought nas out in LDN! gutted!
I couldn't hear the concert. I did hear 1xtra and Mistajam last Thursday here in Miami Florida. It was like heaven on earth.
Damn Roberto, you're getting deep there!!
Me & my girls loved the concert, I can barely spk now where I screamed & sang so much!
We thought Kano's performance was heavy!!
Having watched the Fade to Black DVD I had hoped for more from JayZ & knowing that Beyonce was in the country we thought she was gonna show!!! If only I hadnt already booked my tix when the RAH date was announced :o(
Still, Jigga is the GREATEST & I've seen him live, thats enough 4 me..... until the next time!
I'm sorry to hear Birmingham wasn't the best. I went to the Wembley gig! It was off the HOOOK!! best gig i've ever been to, and I've been to some big ones! The best moment, DEFINATELY Nas coming out!
I felt a bit sorry for Akala, the crowd didn't respond to the "Best Hip Hop act" as much as I expected they would. Personally I felt he smashed it.
Kano was particularly heavy, especially bringing out Lee-o the Lion! BIG moment!
Lupe answered my questions as to whether he could live up to expectations (in a positive way). he did really well, and I was impressed with his enthusiasm (and his dancing haha).
I appreciate the love from Jay, saying we took the best crowd prize away from the Scots! Alround a MASSIVE night! Big Up Jay!
p.s. Beyonce looks even better than you could imagine in the flesh!
I'm gutted that I didn't get to any concerts, but I've loved the coverage and all the Jay Z joints that have been plaing over the past few weeks.
But every DJ I've heard has forgotten to play one certain song. It should be a crime not to play, and that's So Ghetto.
You know you need to bless the people with it Mista Jam!
A was at the Glasgow gig where it was Treble T warmin the crowd up for the night to come, he was brilliant.
Then on came Akala, ok a think it's a good thing the U.K. is bringin out more and more hip-hop artists but Akala? C'mon man, av seen this guy 3 times as a supporting act now. He still got the same reaction as he did on the other 2 occasions...poor.
Now av not really liked Kano in the past, but he is amazing live. A enjoyed his performance more than Jay-Z's for some reason. Guess it felt a bit more personal as he was all about the crowd & not all about how he looked. Now am gonna buy whatever CDs/Mixtapes a can find of Kano. Always liked Ps & Qs though.
Mistajam, this is where a start to agree with your comments on Jay-Z's performance.
There was WAY TOO MUCH HYPE! Jigga seemed to be phenomenal live on all footage av seen of him on stage. It was like an anti-climax when he came on. Infact it WAS an anti-climax. Didn't even play half the songs a hoped he would. He kept it commercial, nothing that wasn't on MTV! He should definately have played Blueprint 2 from The Blueprint 2! And yeah, he did the predictable, went off-stage, we started shouting "HOVA, HOVA, HOVA", he came back on, played Big Pimpin' then ENCORE...like a said, predictable!
Don't get me wrong, great experience to say "I've seen Jay-Z live", but nothing like a hoped it would be.
The Obie Trice gig is still ma best of all time!
Thanks for reading ma rant, sorry!
Peace
Dang homie!
You shoulda been at Wembley. Son tore the roof off without breaking a sweat.
I was impressed to see a London crowd get so open. It's probably cos most folks were from areas rather than london proper but whatever, they made it a live show.
Oh and when Nas came out? Daaamn. Few live Hiphop experiences can beat tens of thousands of Jigga fans going nuts for Nasty (In my Nas-biased opinion). I was videoing on my phone when he came out (yeah shoot me) and you can hear me shouting "NO WAY... ITS NAS!" when Green dropped the beat for Made You Look. The place went banananas.
I hear Westwoods been saying its the best Hiphop show he's ever seen. Surely he was at Ultra at Dingwalls no? I thought there was a rule that said everyone who saw that show had to go on about it being the best show ever until we're all dead.
Can you do the warm up instead of Semtex next time Mista J?
Cholla at your bru.
Went to see Jay z at the nia, loved it alot....but after hearing about the two performences in london was pretty guted to know that Beyonce was in the country and didn't show up, and that the two shows in london seemed to have alot more thought put into it! feeling a bit, how can i explain it... "let down". still not to worry..
I went to the Birmingham concert, was originally gonna go to the Wembley one. But all the good seats were gone, and as the Birmingham one was standing I thought I might get a better chance of seeing Jigga.
But when I heard about the Wembley performance i was soooooooooooooo vex - NAS and BEYONCE. To be honest I didn't think that was fair to his fans. I kinda knew that would happen, so got over it.
The Birmingham concert was ok. Akala - couldn't hear what he was saying his voice was so croaky. Kano was good, got a good reception from the crowd. Some of the tunes the DJ was playing was like he didnt know we was at a hip hop concert.
I did enjoy myself. But at times felt like Jay-Z was concentrating on one half of the arena (not the side I was on) and let Memphis Bleek deal wid the other side. The Birmingham crowd seemed hyper to me (or maybe it was cos I was next to a heap of drunk people). The people around me and my girls were giving us joke, when they were shouting HOOVER instead of HOVA.
He performed all the usual hits, (not a lot from back in the day). I liked when he used the POW beat. I got some good pics and videos on my phone, that I dont think I would've got in London. It was my first time seeing Jay-z, so have nutten to compare it to apart from the Fade to Black DVD. I knew it wasn't gonna be as good as that, and my friend said the UMF was a whole heap better.
Im still a fan though, I have been before he got so popular to the mainstream (u kno before beyonce lol). Im just glad I got to see him, even though he didn't give all his fans the same treatment.
Who went to the Royal Albert Hall concert????
I must say I really enjoyed the concert but I walked away feeling a hunger for more. I mean I'm quite late to the Jigga fan club but I would like to think I've caught up but if I'm honest Jigga's commercial hits like Big Pimpin, H to the Izzo and Hard Knock Life are big but for me personally its the majority of the unreleased tracks that do it for me. I mean going as far back as Reasonable Doubt (I strongly suggest all so called true Jay-Z fans study that album before exploring any others) tracks like Friend or Foe and the one with Slum Village, then you've got Streets is Watching, Coming of Age, Show you how to do this Son, Somehow-Someway I mean these are the tunes that to me give a real insight onto Jay-Z rather than just hearing about the Cristal (did I spell that right? You can tell I cant afford to drink it). So as much as I enjoyed the show and screamed at the top of my lungs for tracks off the Black Album (damn I wish he did December 4th, 2nd verse always touches me), Song Cry and I'm a hustler, I longed to hear tracks like dead presidents and although what we do is wrong although I appreciate Freeway wasn't around, probably somewhere tucking in that beard of his (Get it? "Gotta kill witnesses cos Free beard's sticking out).
I must say I felt robbed to know that Nas came out and performed in London rather than the NIA where I attended by the way if i haven't already mentioned. Especially as I'm a bigger Nas fan than I am Jay-Z. Furthermore I must add I never felt that the energy and hype of the crowd was fully there as it could of been I felt that alot of people attended from being fans of Jay-Z's recent success and commercial exposure within the pop mainstream but couldn't tell you the first track off of Reaonable Doubt which in my opinion gives J less energy to vibe off of. I would of much rather been in a crowd of people of real Jay-Z fans and he spent more time performing 'real' tracks as I've mentioned above, but then I did expect that he would please the crowd, trust me to be part of the minority ey.
Kano was good, I've got nuff respect for this guy, Akala's doing his thing, brother's gotta start somewhere so leave him alone and do as he says "roll with him or get rolled over". Lupe - man where do I start, I just cant wait to cop teh album I'm surprised I dont have it already after I heard it was leaked out on the internet from day!
I think Memphis Bleek gets on my nerves, his album MADE to me was whack, I dunno why J bother's to bring him on stage teach him to manage the bookings or something - UNLESS! They performed Coming of Age and Coming of Age part 2 then yeah bring him come, but that squashed nose doo-rag wearing guy! Sorry he dont do it for me, J should bring an artist that we have more respect for like Freeway, Beanie even the Young Gunz and that short black dude from State Property (Sigel's right hand man in the film)
Let me close on this, who actually put their diamonds up and shouted HOVA-HOVA. I seriously have my reservations on that, still doing my research on the pyramid and the whole Freemason thing. Rumour has it that if you watch carefully on how Nas and Jay-Z shake hands after Nas' surprise appearance at the "I Declare War" concert it signifies that Nas is part of it too. But like I said dont take my word for it - do ya research
Should this opportunity re-occur I think I'm going LON man!
I'm out, I've been talking so long I think I've touched your whole spirit - D'Evils
I must say I really enjoyed the concert but I walked away feeling a hunger for more. I mean I'm quite late to the Jigga fan club but I would like to think I've caught up but if I'm honest Jigga's commercial hits like Big Pimpin, H to the Izzo and Hard Knock Life are big but for me personally its the majority of the unreleased tracks that do it for me. I mean going as far back as Reasonable Doubt (I strongly suggest all so called true Jay-Z fans study that album before exploring any others) tracks like Friend or Foe and the one with Slum Village, then you've got Streets is Watching, Coming of Age, Show you how to do this Son, Somehow-Someway I mean these are the tunes that to me give a real insight onto Jay-Z rather than just hearing about the Cristal (did I spell that right? You can tell I cant afford to drink it). So as much as I enjoyed the show and screamed at the top of my lungs for tracks off the Black Album (damn I wish he did December 4th, 2nd verse always touches me), Song Cry and I'm a hustler, I longed to hear tracks like dead presidents and although what we do is wrong although I appreciate Freeway wasn't around, probably somewhere tucking in that beard of his (Get it? "Gotta kill witnesses cos Free beard's sticking out).
I must say I felt robbed to know that Nas came out and performed in London rather than the NIA where I attended by the way if I haven't already mentioned. Especially as I'm a bigger Nas fan than I am Jay-Z. Furthermore I must add I never felt that the energy and hype of the crowd was fully there as it could of been I felt that a lot of people attended from being fans of Jay-Z's recent success and commercial exposure within the pop mainstream but couldn't tell you the first track off of Reasonable Doubt which in my opinion gives J less energy to vibe off of. I would of much rather been in a crowd of people of real Jay-Z fans and he spent more time performing 'real' tracks as I've mentioned above, but then I did expect that he would please the crowd, trust me to be part of the minority ey.
Kano was good, I've got nuff respect for this guy, Akala's doing his thing, brother's gotta start somewhere so leave him alone and do as he says "roll with him or get rolled over". Lupe - man where do I start, I just cant wait to cop the album I'm surprised I don’t have it already after I heard it was leaked out on the internet from day!
I think Memphis Bleek gets on my nerves, his album MADE to me was whack, I dunno why J bother's to bring him on stage teach him to manage the bookings or something - UNLESS! They performed Coming of Age and Coming of Age part 2 then yeah bring him come, but that squashed nose doo-rag wearing guy! Sorry he don’t do it for me, J should bring an artist that we have more respect for like Freeway, Beanie even the Young Gunz and that short black dude from State Property (Sigel's right hand man in the film)
Let me close on this, who actually put their diamonds up and shouted HOVA-HOVA. I seriously have my reservations on that, still doing my research on the pyramid and the whole Freemason thing. Rumour has it that if you watch carefully on how Nas and Jay-Z shake hands after Nas' surprise appearance at the "I Declare War" concert it signifies that Nas is part of it too. But like I said don’t take my word for it - do ya research
Should this opportunity re-occur I think I'm going LON man!
I'm out, I've been talking so long I think I've touched your whole spirit - D'Evils
i cannot believe jay z did that to us brummies!! dont we deserve the best too!!! still a good show though, and being right at the front was a bonus!!
I showed up at the Royal Albert Hall concert and may I just say that Jigga tore down the roof, the stage...everything. I knew Nas was coming out but when he did there was an eruption that I am sure the whole of London felt. He entered with "Made You Look" and it was off the chain! Best moment that resuccitated hip-hop after it was apparently dead was when both Nas and Jigga stood in the centre of the stage for the crowd to appreciate them. And boy did we appreciate.
We were in the box and couple the champagne with the Jay-Z extravaganza and you've got one hellluva show to live upto. That goes for Ghostface Killah and Talib Kweli both whom I am going to see live!
:D
Peace 1
My only consolation to not seeing those guys at the royal albert hall is that it's supposedly coming out on DVD. I so wish I was there man as they are the only 2 Hip-Hop acts that I'm truly feeling at the moment okay maybe Kanye too but then he hasn't been MCing that long. I heard it was off the chain though man!!!
I was at the brum gig and i gotta say i was left a little dissapionted,akala was gd but u couldnt hear what he was saying (as he had a sore throat),Kano was brilliant as allways,Jigger was gd but i was waiting 4 the moment beyonce and nas would come out as i new they were in the country.As this didnt happen i was a bit pissed.But then when i heard they were both at the wembley gig,i felt let down by jigger.Ive been to a few concerts and this 1 probs was at the bottom of the pile.Jigger at the umf was crazzy especially wid beyonce there 2.Best gig i been 2 was 50 cent at wembley last year the whole g-unit roster was there mobb deep,m.o.p,olivia,mase,banks,buck,spider loc.I aint ever gonna go 2 a concert in brum again,its gonna be london all the time from now on.
i was at both the brum and glasgow gigs.jigga was on point both nites.altho i woulda loved to have been at wembley to c nas ...thats fire right there...
and lupe was the shit!!!
i was at both the brum and glasgow gigs.jigga was on point both nites.altho i woulda loved to have been at wembley to c nas ...thats fire right there...
and lupe was the shit!!!
and the guy that wrote comment 9,is that darren mcbride?
"and the guy that wrote comment 9,is that darren mcbride?"
nah man, this ain't darren mcbride.
sorry...
the concert was grimey beyonce , nas , kano, akala , leo were all there an jay z was rappin ova the forward riddem dat was ova gd 1 of da best concert i bin 2
Screwing - I've seen Jigga perform live THREE TIMES already, so I wasn't too bothered about seeing him as he hasn't released a new album. And as hot as Beyonce is, I'm not an rnb head.
I turned down the chance to go to the Wembley gig only to find out Nas was there! Proper vex!
Not sure what Jigga's performance was like this time around but at a previous Wembley gig he and The Rocafella fam smacked it.
Sigel dropped Tells of a Hustler, Bleek and Jay went back and forth, Free was there, Dame was being Dame - it was heavy.
Shout out to Jigga... waiting for that new album.
Hi,
I'm eagerly awaiting Jay-Z to hit the Australian shores in about 3 weeks time. Was just wondering if anyone has the track list of songs that he performed for any of the concerts...
Peace
Eldog
I went to the royal albert hall concert, oh my GOD, it was (as the americans would say) off the chain, off the hizzy off whatever, he performed like I have never seen before i went home with absolutely no voice oh my goodness
you got bishop (120)
you got cardinals (4 and 4)
that who
s. carter,cool j,calvinbroad
shakur, somany they know
themselves
that west side , east side, south side north side
i like you if you love knowles and relax olivia
she is like vodoo the witch doctor a black night
the celt she admired not by great powers but as yours.
from me
Saw Jay-Z in Cape Town (err, that's in South Africa) last nite...shoowow. what a show. Less inspiring was support act Rihanna... o well. big it up, etc,,,
Yo the bham crowd were live whats all this negative reaction im hearin? i was at the wembley gig aswell and i think there bham crowd were on more of a hype the deserved nas and beyonce
man like me went to wembley and royal albert hall both of them shits was dope u get me. jay z killed it and nas killed it. at royal albert hall there was nuff celebrities in the crowd. i see j.m.e and he's boys in 1 box rocking them boy better know t-shirts. in the box behind me was lily allen and her peeps. and lisa mafia was there. i think royal albert hall was the best out of both because there was a live orchestra. is there dvd comeing out for hes tour
www.myspace.com/gray_block_mafia
www.myspace.com/teflon_dons
The wembley show was Live. The U.K Supports were on top form. Akala smashed it along side his drummer Cassell The Beatmaker. The live drums sure added that special touch. Kano was amazing too and when Leo came out the crowd went mad.
Jigga Just totally blew me away. He did all the hits and had me rapping and going crazy for the whole show. Oh and when Naz came out it was like the whole show took a step up. He totally smashed it. He rocked the crowd. BIG show!