You know you can't miss Jigga now in his prime time. Here's what happend last on Thursday in Phoenix.
Jigga fans in the Valley turned out en masse Thursday night, July 2, packing all three levels of the Dodge Theatre in Phoenix to hear HOVA rip the stage up.
While opening act Fabolous worked with prerecorded material (and did a solid job), Jay-z burst onto the stage with a full band, including two percussionists, two keyboard players, a DJ, three horns, bass and guitar.
The result early on was overwhelming instrumentation in such sprawling songs as 2006's "Show Me What You Got," with its videos of yachts and race cars, and 2003's "Allure."
He was all business at the beginning, ripping through a string of favorites that included "Big Pimpin'," "Hard Knock Life" and "Dirt Off Your Shoulder."
The audience was on its feet for the entire set, which ran nearly 90 minutes, taking in the wall of sound and rhyming as well as the images on a massive video screen and several smaller ones above the stage.
Jay-z was joined for much of the set by rapper Memphis Bleek, who also appeared with him in April in Tucson. The pair played off each other well, with Bleek holding his own but backing off as warranted.
At one point, Jay-z paid tribute to the departed Michael Jackson.
“Put your hands up for the King of Pop, Michael Jackson,” he said, as the video screens flashed images of the dead superstar in his early days with the Jackson 5 and the group's hit “I Want You Back” was heard.
"I believe if we let him know how much we loved him while was he here, he'd still be here," Jay-z said of Jackson, who died at 50 on Thursday, June 25, in Los Angeles. Now this is a true fact, show your love to people, and stop hating and taking shots at each other.
Jay-z also recognized such Black leaders as the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Muhammad Ali and Nelson Mandela as he performed the new "My President" and "Interlude". Slides of newspaper headlines proclaiming Barack Obama's presidential victory in 2008 brought roars from the crowd.
Jay-z wound down the show with a nice touch, pointing out fans in the crowd and commenting on their signs and fashion. He even had the spotlights trained on the seats in the rafters and shouted comments like, "I see you in the yellow T-shirt, I see you with the Jay-z shirt."
When a woman asked him for his Yankees' cap, he playfully told her there was no way he could operate without it; then he tossed it to her. That's Jay right there! Brooklyn stand up!
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