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Pop Rock Nation

Tag: Jay-Z

  • Jay-Z Runs San Jose

    I attended the Jay-Z concert at the HP Pavilion on March 24th in San Jose and though it was a bit rough early on, I’d have to give the show a solid thumbs up.

    Because I was coaching my sons’ little league baseball team earlier that evening, I figured that showing up late to the concert wasn’t going to be an issue. I didn’t need to see Trey Songz perform anyways. He performs for the ladies. If I wanted to see a sweaty dude take his shirt off, I’d watch UFC. Wait.

    I’d also heard that Young Jeezy was going to follow Trey and if I were to say that I was a huge Young Jeezy fan, I’d be lying to all of you. I couldn’t name one Jeezy song.

    Jay-Z Runs San Jose

    But I’m a big Jay-Z fan. I was there to see Jigga and it didn’t matter who else was going to be there.

    I got there in the middle of Trey Songz’s set and after he performed, there was a short intermission and we (I was with my cousin Tomiko and my friend Christal) went to get some beverages and to use the restroom. The bar was packed and it took forever to get served, but I wasn’t all that bothered. The less I saw of Young Jeezy, the better I would be.

    But then I heard a familiar sound from the bar. It was as the sound of Auto-tune dying. I hoped it was just the CD track of Jay-Z’s D.O.A. playing over the loud speakers, but I wasn’t too sure and peaked my head out towards the stage. It was Jay, and he was already flowing. We hurried back to our seats. Where was Young Jeezy?

    After only what seemed like a few minutes, but was probably closer to a half hour, Jay-Z handed the mic to Young Jeezy. Young Jeezy was Jay-Z’s half-time show. And that’s when I got on my Blackberry to pass the time.

    I haven’t been about to find any reason as to why Jeezy didn’t do his set before Jay. Maybe they didn’t think the Bay Area was feeling Jeezy and would’ve been antsy waiting for Jay? Was Jeezy late? Did he oversleep? Whatever it was, I wasn’t happy with the half-time act and couldn’t wait for Jay to get back on stage.

    When Jay came back on, he went through many hits and songs from his latest album The Blueprint 3, backed by his Roc Boys band. And after about another half hour, he finished Thank You and acted like the show was over. But then he decided to go into what he dubbed OT (overtime).

    OT was designed for the older Jay-Z fans. In fact, he mentioned that OT was going to be all older songs and for the newer fans who are now Jay-Z fans because of his latest album, they might’ve wanted to check out so they could beat traffic, unless they wanted to learn.

    OT was exactly what he described it would be. He performed verses from songs like Money Ain’t A Thing, Ain’t No *****, and even a less than popular Jay-Z song from his second album, Where I’m From, which is also the song Diddy jacked for Angels. After that, he was about to dip into one of my favorite Jay songs, Dead Presidents, but then he stopped and said it was going too far back.

    For most of the older tracks, he just did the memorable verses that the fans would know and would move on (to the next one). He ended the show with Encore before doing some interactive stuff with the fans, including the Roc Wave.

    Jay-Z is not what you’d call a standout live performer. But he’s as cool as they come and had the crowd in his hands. He even shouted out Bay Area favorite Too Short as a Too Short song played behind him.

    He didn’t have a Bay Area State Of Mind, but he didn’t need to. The crowd loved him.

  • NY-Z: A Short Documentary About Jay-Z

    I’m not exactly sure what’s behind this, other than it’s sponsored by ABSOLUT Vodka, but I noticed that it was being tweeted about so I decided to put it here.

    It’s only 15 minutes long, shot in black and white, and directed by Danny Clinch. There’s a cameo by the guy who tweeted it (John Mayer) who talks about wanting to play the guitar part of D.O.A. (Death Of Auto-Tune). It mostly focuses around his September 11, 2009 concert at Madison Square Garden.

  • Stranded

    We’ve told you about the Haiti charity singles that are soon to be released such as the Simon Cowell All-Star version of Everybody Hurts and the 25th Anniversary 2010 version of We Are The World. I wanted to give props to another song that was put together for the same reason.

    While we haven’t heard the final update to the We Are The World remake, I’m going to guess that it won’t be able to match the perfect combination of Jay-Z, Rihanna, and Bono on Stranded (Haiti Mon Amour).

    I didn’t watch the Hope For Haiti special live. But I did go on iTunes and download both the album and concert broadcast. I thought all of the songs performed by Christina Aguilera, Jennifer Hudson, Alicia Keys, Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, and others came straight from the heart. The performances were subdued and the artists let their voices shine as to not overshadow the goal of the evening, which was to raise money for Haiti.

    Save for Shakira’s I’ll Stand By You, which I simply couldn’t get into because of her wailing, I enjoyed everything. It was a perfect evening, not only for the money that was raised for Haiti, but also for how the music community showed that once again it can come together when needed.

    The best thing I heard that night, and maybe the best thing I’ve heard in a long time was Stranded (Haiti Mon Amour). From Jay-Z’s whispery delivery, “When the sky falls and the earth quakes, we gon’ put this back together, we won’t break,” to Rihanna and Bono complimenting each other on the chorus, it’s a song that I hope becomes timeless.

    If you haven’t heard it or seen the performance, it’s definitely worth checking out.