I was excited as hell to see Jay in concert with fellow moggers David Hyman (along with his better half), and BrittanyBF. As someone who regularly recites random Jay-Z lines to people as they stare blankly back at me like an idiot, going to see Jigga was on the list of things to do before I die.Being that Mary J. has 16 years of hits to rifle through, and Jay-Z has 12, there wasn't much time for an opening act. R&B Newcomer "The Dream" came out and did three songs, and then proceeded to get the hell outta there. Mary and Jay hit the stage just moments after and kicked things off with "Can't Knock The Hustle", which predictably drove everyone crazy. One of the major surprises is that they were backed by a HUGE band, I've seen Jay with a band in the past but never like this.
Mary's set was long (like I said, a lot of hits to go through), but it was much more uptempo than I had anticipated which turned out to be great. Songs like "Real Love" and "You're All I need" got everyone moving, but the highlight of her set had to be "I'm Goin Down". The fans performed the first two verses of the song while Mary ad libbed and did the chorus, I wasn't even aware I knew all the words until I was already in the moment. Minor accomplishment. I got goosebumps watching her perform "No More Drama", if you've never seen her do that song live you're missing out. It's almost like she call pull out her past demons at will and channel them through the lyrics. The Queen finished things up with "Be Without You" and "Just Fine", which even had the dudes who previously tried to act too cool to dance doing the two step.When Jay hit the stage a few moments later, the amount of weed smoke traveling through the air tripled. The huge band behind him sounded GREAT when he launched into "Roc Boys" and I instantly started to appreciate Jay's decision to use more live instruments on his last few albums. Listening to "Show Me What You Got" and "Encore" with the band only strengthens my point in that respect. Another thing you instantly appreciate during a Jay-Z performance is his attention to detail and showmanship. Rappers typically have a reputation of being horrible live performers because theres so much energy that they end up screaming the lyrics instead of properly enunciating them. Then theres also the trend of having 3 or 4 hype men on stage with you yelling into the mic which turns the song into a hot mess. None of this is true with Jay-Z, his breath control was excellent, he interacted with the crowd a lot, and each song sounded exactly as you'd envisioned it to be.I can honestly say there was no "down moment" in Jay-Z's set, so the highlight of his performance will vary depending on who you ask. When Jay and Memphis Bleek did "U Don't Know" .... that was almost like a religious experience for me, this moment will always be known as the time I caught "the Hova ghost". It's not one of his more popular songs so I was mildly surprised to see everyone singing along word for word. After tearing the house down with "Jigga What", "PSA", and "Blue Magic", Jay did an acapella verse from "Minority Report" about Hurricane Katrina and president Bush's failures.
"Wouldn't you loot if you didn't have the loot?Baby needed food and you stuck on the roofAnd helicopter scooped down just to get a scoopThrough his telescopic lens but he didn't scoop youThe next five days, no help ensued"
That was followed up by an official endorsement of Barack Obama, which drew wild cheers from everyone. In total... Jay and Mary performed five songs together "Song Cry", "Heart Of The City", "You're Welcome", and "Real Love (remix)" in addition to the previously mentioned "Can't Knock The Hustle". Seeing their chemistry together made me think about how great the "Best Of Both Worlds" tour with Jay and R. Kelly could have been a few years ago had it not failed.Overall... it was an amazing show...