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| Photo by Sayre Berman |
Jay-Z
With Trey Songz and Young Jeezy
BankAtlantic Center, Sunrise
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Better Than: Listening to the AutoTuned train-wreck on "We Are the World 25 for Haiti."
The Review:
Jay-Z's last two appearances in South Florida, both in 2008, were each in downtown Miami. (One was his own headlining gig at AAA with Mary J. Blige, in March of that year; the other was a free October show at Bayfront Park Amphitheater, in support of Obama's presidential campaign). So it was that for the opening date of his Blueprint 3 tour, Broward got some love. The BankAtlantic Center was, on Saturday night, turned into the Jay-Z Center -- really, that's what it said on the LED marquee lights outside. A little bit of geographical confusion remained, though; at one point, bill-sharer Young Jeezy declared, "Fort Lauderdale, make some noise.... Dade County!"
In any event, with the show's geographic proximity to South Beach celebrity haunts, and the fact that it was the first of the run, I can't have been the only one secretly hoping for some kind of megawatt guest appearance. There weren't any surprises in that department, though. The only unannounced talent who showed was Memphis Bleek, but he's been Jay-Z's trusty sideman for so long, that was expected. No matter. Over a nearly two-hour headlining set (punctuated in the middle by a solo Jeezy interlude), the man born Shawn Carter showed he was perfectly capable of carrying an arena show all by himself.
But then there was the stripped-down part. Besides the band and the DJ, and the relatively simply lights, that was it. Besides the occasional help from Bleek, or from the robustly voiced Bridget Kelly, Jay-Z commanded the whole show himself. Dressed in his signature black Yankees hat, black jeans, and a black Balmain-style denim marching-band jacket, he paced the stage deliberately, hitting his complexly interlocking lyrics without missing a syllable.
No backing vocal tracks, no crowds of hype men. Who's the last rapper you've seen live who has neither? And so, with a self-assured swagger, he powered through basically every song every fan would want to hear, even dipping far back as his 1996 debut, Reasonable Doubt, if only for a few lines (from "Ain't No Nigga"). The big guns came out early. "Empire State Of Mind," "Jigga My Nigga," "Jigga What Jigga Who," to name just a few, all got fans throwing up diamonds and chanting every word.
"Empire State of Mind" came somewhat early in the set, too. Despite being utterly played out on commercial radio, live, the song was exciting again, with its almost showtunes-style keyboard lines and chorus. It probably helped for the audience energy level, too, that probably at least half of the South Florida crowd comprised ex-New Yorkers, or at least people who had done time there.
Actually, it's good that these monster hits came early, because by the end of "Empire State of Mind," Hov was starting to sound noticeably hoarse. So with that, after shouting out A-Rod, who apparently was in the audience, he exited and ceded the stage for a while to Young Jeezy, who was billed as an opener but wound up as a sort of sandwiched-in co-headliner.
Jeezy is a commanding presence on record, but he paled as a live performer compared to Jay-Z. His music is definitely grimier and rowdier, and amplified at arena levels it reates a mood of aggressive anticipation, as if anything could pop off. It's exciting, to be sure. But Jeezy largely relied on his own vocal backing tracks, sometimes skipping actually rapping almost every other line. His most hardcore fans, though, seemed happy just to hear his hits at high volume, and they went from more recent fare like "Put On" and "Crazy World," back to earlier songs like "Trap Star."
The man of the evening soon reappeared, though, and after a joint rendition of "My President," it was back to the Jay-Z show. He acknowledged the hoarseness: "My voice is a little messed up, but I still want to go if you all want to go." We did, and after a few more big hits, came the trademark portion of any Jay-Z headlining show: the medley. With more than 20 years in the game, he now has too many crowd favorites to perform them all in full, so with his DJ's help, he sped through fragments of about 11 hits and slightly deeper cuts.
But with the clock reaching 11, it was, although early, time to wrap things up. And that's when the lights went up, and Jay-Z acknowledged the crowd, literally. He shouted out some girls on the floor with a sign asking him to play their graduation party, a guy with a Mos Def shirt, even someone up in the nearby stands. "I appreciate every single person in this building. I tell you, I'm not jaded," he said. "I'm overwhelmed with love, and I hope that I return that in full." He can rest assured that he did.
Critic's Notebook
Personal Bias: I'm a life-long Yankees fan who's happy to have Jay-Z as the team's new patron saint. I guess from now on, they'll play "Empire State of Mind" after Sinatra at the end of every home game?
Random Detail: It's super random that someone sitting near me would wind up in our photos of the crowd outside the arena, but this guy on the right had a really good brush-your-shoulders-off dance.
By the Way: Young Jeezy has reportedly been working on a new album with Akon; its release date is still to be decided.
Set Lists:
Jay-Z:
-"Run This Town"
-verse from Kanye West's "Diamonds"
-"On to the Next One"
-"DOA (Death of AutoTune)"
-"U Don't Know"
-"99 Problems"
-"Show Me What You Got"
-"I Just Wanna Love You (Give It To Me)"
-verse from Snoop Dogg's "I Wanna Rock (remix)"
-"Jigga My Nigga"
-"Hovi Baby"
-"Jigga What Jigga Who"
-PSA Interlude from The Black Album
-"Heart of the City (Ain't No Love)"
-"Already Home"
-"Empire State of Mind"
Jay-Z and Young Jeezy:
-"Real As It Gets"
Young Jeezy:
-"Get Ya Mind Right"
-"Bottom of the Map"
-"Welcome Back"
-verse from Shawty Lo's "Dey Know"
-"I'm Going In"
-"Who Dat"
-"My Hood"
-"Bang"
-"Trap Star"
-"I Luv It"
-"Go Crazy"
-verse from Rihanna's "Hard"
-"Crazy World"
-"Go Getta"
-verse from song with Akon, "Soul Survivor"
-"Put On"
Young Jeezy With Jay-Z:
-"My President"
Jay-Z:
-"Dirt Off Your Shoulder"
-verse from "Swagger Like Us"
-"Thank You"
-"Excuse Me Miss"
-"Venus Vs. Mars"
-"Bonnie and Clyde"
-"Ain't No Nigga"
-verse from Mya's "Best of Me"
-verse from Jermaine Dupri's "Money Ain't a Thang"
-"Lucifer"
-"Where I'm From"
-verse from Kanye West's "Hate"
-"Can I Get A..."
-"Big Pimpin;"
-"Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)"
Encore:
-"Numb"
