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Jay and Mary, but not last night. Dang photo restrictions!

I could write a mountain of gushing prose right now, but I’ll (try to) refrain from that. I will, however, speak on behalf of a group of people I have no right speaking on behalf of, but they deserve it:

“Dear Jay-Z: We are not worthy. Signed, The Majority of the Rap Game.”

At its best, this show was incredible. Never mind that it was in a stadium (there usually seems to be a lack of performer/audience intimacy at a stadium show) and I was in the nosebleeds ($100 for nosebleeds?!) - oh, my, god.

Hov and Mary opened the show with “Can’t Knock The Hustle”, which led straight into Mary’s hour-long set filled with old faves and new jams. She definitely brought the house down with “Real Love” (Jay stepping out for a verse on that one) and was near perfection on “No More Drama” and “Not Gon’ Cry”. All the ladies sang along and of course, she even got love from the mens. I was kinda surprised when she didn’t sing “Family Affair”, since it’s arguably her biggest single - but maybe she’s sick of it?

Out came Jay, and out came the diamonds in the aaaair. I’ve never been to a show where lady screams give way to a dude roar. Everybody was on their feet as the AMAZING band kicked into “Roc Boys”. Obviously Jay has a massive catalogue but I would say for this scale of concert, he made smart set list choices - a best of the best mix of everything from Reasonable Doubt to American Gangster. Mary came out to sing the hook on “Song Cry” (*tear!*), Memphis Bleek came out for some “99 Problems” (was I so wrong in hoping for a taste of “Is That Your Chick?”). “I Just Wanna Love U”, “Can I Get A”, “Show Me What You Got”, “Dirt Off Your Shoulder”, “Jigga What, Jigga Who” - hits like rapid fire. The dude has so many bangers that he didn’t even touch “Blue Magic”, “Anything”, “Lost Ones”, “Excuse Me Miss” … and sometimes, he’d just tease with a verse before he moved on to the next track, like with “Pray” and “Dead Presidents”.

Close to the end of his set, Jay moved over to the DJ booth, driving the audience crazy with 10 second teases of MORE hits like “Money Ain’t A Thang”, “Hard Knock Life”, “Bonnie & Clyde” - stopping each one and saying, “f*ck that” before moving on to the next. He even started “Crazy In Love” before stopping it and saying, “Sorry, B. Fuuuuu*k that.” He told the DJ to wait til he walked to the centre of the stage before pressing a certain button, then prompted us all to countdown from 10 .. which launched into “Big Pimpin”, and a 20,000 person sing-a-long of his first verse, which was unbelievable! And to top it off, he said, “Ok, I think they’re ready” before busting into “Encore”. Then Mary came back out for one more duet of “Heart Of The City”.

So: both of these legends were on point, the audience sang along to almost everything, the band was fierce and the there were so many hits that I didn’t even have time to think about the songs that were missing. How can you go wrong? You can’t, that’s how.

Fave moments: Mary’s “Not Gon Cry” and “No More Drama”, Jay’s “Public Service Announcement”, “Big Pimpin” and “Encore”. And when he teased us at the DJ booth, even though it was slightly cruel.

PS: Ok, so this did turn into a long review. I guess I’m still a little excited, ok?!

Posted on Thursday, April 3rd, 2008 at 3:15 pm by Wendy and is filed under Concerts & Events.

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