Rap-Up.com:// r.i.p. michael jackson - gone too soon » Blog Archive

Jay-Z reopened the legendary Hollywood Palladium on Wednesday night with a standing-room only show. The $20 million newly renovated space was packed wall-to-wall with faithful fans who paid $150 each to see one of rap’s greatest perform live. DJ AM made his return to the stage spinning for Mr. Carter the entire show, alongside Jay’s 8-piece band, the Roc Boys.

The hip-hop superstar brought out a broad spectrum of celebrities including athletes, actresses, and musicians. Stars that flocked to see Jay included “Grey’s Anatomy’s” Ellen Pompeo, Hayden Panettiere, Angela and Vanessa Simmons, Tyrese, Lisa Raye, Sanaa Lathan, the entire Wayans family, Too $hort, and the Los Angeles Lakers’ Jordan Farmar, Lamar Odom, Andrew Bynum, and Derek Fisher.

The crowd went wild when surprise guest T.I. came out to join the Jiggaman for “Swagga Like Us.” A photo of President Bush was plastered on the screen as he performed “Public Service Announcement,” and soon pictures of Jay’s candidate of choice, Barack Obama followed. “How many of ya’ll are voting for Obama?” Jay asked the crowd. It seemed the majority of the house had made up their minds: Obama it is.

In his black and gold peace sign T-shirt, black shades and jeans, and Roc-A-Fella chain, the rap mogul blessed the crowd with over 25 songs including oldies like “Jigga What, Jigga Who” and “I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me),” to more recent hits like “I Know” and “Jockin’ Jay Z.” Hov “smoothed it out” during “Excuse Me Miss” by passing out a pricey bottle of Ace of Spades champagne to a lucky fan in the front row. His longtime friend and artist Memphis Bleek came out to do a few songs including “Is That Yo Chick?” He exited the stage and said goodnight, but then decided that the crowd deserved “the extended set,” which included “Big Pimpin’” and “Hard Knock Life.”

On a more serious note of the night, Jay shouted out DJ AM and Travis Barker, while remembering those who lost their lives in last month’s South Carolina plane crash. Continuing with the night’s theme of politics, the “‘hood’s Barack” asked how many people were voting for John McCain and expressed his thoughts on Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin. “If I had to give the next president advice about homegirl, ‘You betcha’…” He then segued into “99 Problems.”

During the encore, Jay headed over to DJ AM and his laptop and hand-picked a few songs, doing a verse from each with crowd participation. He even selected two songs featuring his wife Beyoncé (”‘03 Bonnie & Clyde” and “Crazy in Love”), but quickly moved on. After a 90-minute set, he exited the stage for the final time that evening ending with, “Get home safe. I appreciate every single person in here.”

“The last person to open this up was Frank. I consider myself Ol’ Brown Eyes, baby,” said the 39-year-old rapper in reference to Ol’ Blue Eyes, Frank Sinatra, who opened the venue nearly 70 years ago. And who better to kick off the next 70 years than the Sinatra of our day, Shawn Carter?

–Jessica Washington in Hollywood

JAY-Z HOLLYWOOD PALLADIUM SET LIST

1. “Say Hello” / “Hello Brooklyn”
2. “U Don’t Know” featuring Memphis Bleek
3. “Roc Boys (And the Winner Is…)”
4. “Pray”
5. “Lucifer”
6. “Can I Live”
7. “Blue Magic”
8. “Minority Report”
9. “Public Service Announcement”
10. “Swagga Like Us” featuring T.I.
11. “Jigga My Nigga”
12. “Jigga What, Jigga Who”
13. “Izzo (H.O.V.A.)”
14. “Can I Get A…”
15. “I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me)”
16. “Show Me What You Got”
17. “I Know”
18. “Excuse Me Miss”
19. “Song Cry”
20. “Is That Yo Chick?”
21. “Dirt Off Your Shoulder”
22. “A Billi”
23. “Jockin’ Jay-Z”
24. Medley with DJ AM
25. “Big Pimpin’”
26. “Hard Knock Life”
27. “Encore”

Posted in Jay-Z, Reviews, Tours | Permalink |

Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

8 Comments

OGhiphop.com
October 16th, 2008 at 11:34 am
great post.
bass_man
October 16th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
great post
ITALIANA PER LA VITA
October 16th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
THE MOST OVERATED ARTIST IN THIS ERA.
Him and his girl are the media premanufactured poster childs so they
can make money off of them, They do these type of things in every
field for hype / etc L. James / Sydney Crosby / Etc
These two are to the black media what brit / pa\’reese / kimbo / etc
are to the mainstream \’ white media \’ . And I hope There\’s people
here and etc that speak there minds and not let the media do it for
us, cuz that\’s who they are.
And another thing batman bass_mnan whatever, you\’re exactly
what\’s wrong with our sociaty color blind one track minded pro
black and bump / who cares about the race and it\’s really
disrespectful an insult for us ethnic americans.

note: I\’m not bein\’ mean so if you do / don\’t agree respect mine
opinion and countless of others. TRUST ME

CAPESH !
Hip Hop For Life!
October 16th, 2008 at 5:38 pm
Are you serious??? Most overrated of our era? how about NORE or Cam…or all of the dipset!!! Can you really sit here and say Jay Z (who is mentioned in the same sentence with the likes of Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Frank Sinatra? This man has taken Hip Hop to levels unseen by an everyday rapper.
This is the same dude that made Reasonable Doubt, The Black Album, American Gangsterm The Blueprint 1 and part of two. To be honest, this cat is the most relevent hip hop artist today who was around in 95. There others include, Nas, Scarface, Outkast and Ghostface! Thats it. And look I love em all but no one has pushed Hip Hop to the levels of this man.
Ao if you wanna call him overrated fine thats your opinion and I will respect everyones viewpoint, but THE MOST OVERRATED—a very emotional not very thought about statement!
ITALIANA PER LA VITA
October 16th, 2008 at 6:39 pm
#4 Obviously , you\’re str8t up HH so if anyone else says otherwise you\’ll
react exact the way you just did. First of all, in your / his dreams that
he\’s in frank sinatra bill gates etc level. Are you serious.?
FUGHEDABOUTIT !
This homeboy is a str8t wannabe pac sinatra etc, for starters pac is
the man in HH, secondly Piason Frankie OL\’ Blue Eyes Sinatra is
in a league of his own. Before you start stating and commenting and
telling me a very emotional not thought about comment, Amicci
( friend by the way in ITALIANO ) look around the web and you\’ll
see / hear what I\’m talkin\’ bout / sayin\’. This wanabe plagerizes emulates capitalizes from others. American Gangers my ass girl, he ain\’t nowhere in the sight of Piasonos like CAPONE GOTTI GENOVESE
LUCIANO COSTELLO ETC, He wouldn\’t last a minute next to pac just like the others HH 4 Life and anyone that resonates echos feelin\’s emotions like you got to wake up and realize what people like jay z are, just like our country\’s ( WE DISCOVERED IT BY THE WAY, ITALIANO BABY ) gov, politicians etc fake media favored etc
sweety there\’s so so and I mean so many people like my people ITALIANOS SICILIANOS , Muslims etc that would expose and TEAR HIS ASS UP , if they would ever be in the spotlight, but it\’s orchestrated like that let them make money wit fakes and screw hold back the real ones.
Anyways, So don\’t start idolizing glorifying sensationalizing etc
people like that, then again this is a black site but you won\’t get what
your talkin\’ about else were .

Again but this time CAPRENDA ARIVADERCCI
ITALIANO AMO BACCIO
OGhiphop.com
October 16th, 2008 at 7:53 pm
Wow Italiana, i\\\’m gonna have to go with Hip-Hop For Life on this one. Jay-Z isn\\\’t overrated. He\\\’s one of the best emcees to ever do it today. Take him outside of all the media hype and lyrically and stylistically, he is (excuse my Italian) unfuckwitable. It\\\’s not everyday that an emcee comes around garnering the respect of other greats. Biggie loved Jay, Lupe and Kanye idolize the dude, Talib respects Jay, Busta Bus, Common, Eminem, the list goes on. You have to be on a level beyond \\
OGhiphop.com
October 16th, 2008 at 7:54 pm
Wow Italiana, i’m gonna have to go with Hip-Hop For Life on this one. Jay-Z isn’t overrated. He’s one of the best emcees to ever do it today. Take him outside of all the media hype and lyrically and stylistically, he is (excuse my Italian) unfuckwitable. It’s not everyday that an emcee comes around garnering the respect of other greats. Biggie loved Jay, Lupe and Kanye idolize the dude, Talib respects Jay, Busta Bus, Common, Eminem, the list goes on. You have to be on a level beyond “media darling” to get their attention. He’s an artist that was able to bridge the gap between artistic integrity and material merits. He’s rich AND he kept it real. Is Jay-Z a Frank Sinatra? Only time will tell, but i can tell you right now, he’s bigger than ol’ blue eyes. Go to any country and see how many random people know a frankie song. Ask them about a jay-z song, and they will recite at least one word for word.

So stop flaming the good people of rap-up.com and its patrons and understand this culture before bumping your gums (no offense). Nothing against you homie, I’d tell me younger brother the same thing. Sorry, my ish got cut off up there
Hip Hop For Life!
October 17th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
See here in lies the problem of sooo many people who think they are true hip hop fans. You hear the title American Gangster and you think Gotti, Capone and Genovese! Jay Z has never and I will repeat NEVER said that he was is or ever will be any of those cats. What he is…is a Hustler. He has hustled his entire life. And no Im not talkin heroin or crack. Im talkin about People and Music. He\\\’s hustled the rap game for everything its worth.
Do I need to compare him to Pac? NOPE! How about BIGGIE? NOPE! Ya know why, because he isnt either one of them. Ya know what he is. The first rapper to sell out Madison Square Garden. The first person to open up the Hollywood Palladium in over 70 years! (in which he sold out for $150/ticket!
Look, again, Im not saying you have to like him…Im sure there are thousands of people who dont like him. But when you look at what he\\\’s done for Hip Hop you NEED to respect the game he plays….cause homie, He\\\’s played it better than anyone else has in the past 25 years!