Post by Deamonic Angel on Jun 2, 2008 16:27:50 GMT
In front of a packed house in Oakland, the best rapper alive and the queen of hip-hop soul put on a magnificent show.
OAKLAND, Calif.--More than artists of their generation, Jay-Z and Mary J. Blige embody the connection between classic soul music and hip-hop.
The pair drowned a packed Oakland Arena in soul Monday night, showing exactly how they have managed to sustain multiplatinum careers in a genre that views music less than a decade old as throwback.
For starters, both have talent in spades, incredible presence, and an obvious passion for what they do. But more than anything, they each have built themselves a massive catalog of incredible songs: Hova and Mary have been churning out anthems for nearly two decades apiece.
The night began with Terius Nash, aka the Dream, who has written some of the biggest songs in the world in the past few years, including Rihanna's "Umbrella" and Mariah Carey's "Touch My Body." Dream let a backing track do most of the vocal work in the four-song set, but the crowd loved the bump-and-grind fare regardless. Since his costume changes almost outnumbered the songs on his set list, it's safe to assume that the Dream will be spending more time in front of the camera, so to speak.
Before long, the curtain was raised, revealing a gigantic 21-piece band--eight strings and four horns in tow--as well as a catwalk, three staircases, and multiple giant video screens.
Jay-Z and Mary J. Blige emerged atop the catwalk, and the band dove right into the opening notes to "Can't Knock the Hustle," a sensational opener and the defining track from Jay's 1996 debut, Reasonable Doubt.
Jay departed, leaving the stage to Blige, whose 80-minute set was full of impassioned calls for loyalty, responsibility, and female empowerment, with plenty of straight-up party jams mixed in. Blige's female fans look to her as the woman who has been through what they've been through and then some, but with a platform to vocalize that joy and pain. The result is both celebration and catharsis.
Blige has so many huge tracks that she decided to play short snippets of many of them, as Jay-Z would do later. While "Hustle" was an incredible opener, the place exploded when Jay returned to do the late Notorious B.I.G.'s verse on Blige's "Real Love."
In the latter half of the set, Blige displayed an unbelievable fire--think Tina Turner-level heat--and sustained it for at least a half dozen songs. At the end of the moving "No More Drama," Blige launched into a diatribe: "I'm tired of people judging me for what I did and who I was and not giving me credit for the progress I made and who I am today!"
That's the sign of the ultimate professional: when an artist is able to express a level of emotion and passion onstage night after night to make fans feel like they're witnessing something special.
Stirring ballads like "Not Gon' Cry" and "Your Child" followed, the latter of which, about a man who fathers a child with a mistress but denies its existence, was played out onstage by three actors. And then there were the hits for which Blige didn't need to sing a single word, like "I'm Goin' Down," as she had a vocal choir of thousands singing along. She closed with yet another ode to renewal and self-confidence, "Just Fine."
Jay-Z emerged from atop the catwalk almost as soon as the lights went down, jumping into "Say Hello" off his widely hailed 2007 album, American Gangster, which saw him return to telling hustler tales over soul-drenched beats.
Accompanied by a scaled-down band that also featured a DJ, Jay relied heavily on a dynamite horn section throughout, particularly on fantastic tracks like "Roc Boys," also from Gangster.
Once Jay began digging into his back catalog, it was alarming how many hits he's crafted, literally a guided tour of hip-hop's past decade-plus, nearly every song serving as the defining track of a particular season or year. There was the swagger-driven "I Just Wanna Love U," "Can I Live," "Jigga What Jigga Who," "H To the Izzo," the raucous "99 Problems," "Dead Presidents," "Can I Get A..." and the pitch-perfect "Song Cry," on which Blige came out to sing the chorus.
The set peaked with an amazing rendition of "Dirt Off Your Shoulder," followed by "Blue Magic," and "Minority Report," Hova's take on the horrific aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. "Ya'll ready for change," he asked, as an image of Barack Obama appeared ion the giant video screen behind him. "I'm just a free American citizen giving his free American opinion," he said.
An aural assault of even more hits followed, from "Money Ain't a Thang" to "Big Pimpin.'"
Fittingly, the night ended with "Heart of the City (Ain't No Love)," with Blige filling in for the sampled hook and infusing it with fire, much in the way that Jaguar Wright did on the live version from Jay-Z's 2001 Unplugged set.
It was a night to remember, two artists laying the Blueprint for how hip-hop ages with class and heart without losing the fire and spirit from which it spawned.
OAKLAND, Calif.--More than artists of their generation, Jay-Z and Mary J. Blige embody the connection between classic soul music and hip-hop.
The pair drowned a packed Oakland Arena in soul Monday night, showing exactly how they have managed to sustain multiplatinum careers in a genre that views music less than a decade old as throwback.
For starters, both have talent in spades, incredible presence, and an obvious passion for what they do. But more than anything, they each have built themselves a massive catalog of incredible songs: Hova and Mary have been churning out anthems for nearly two decades apiece.
The night began with Terius Nash, aka the Dream, who has written some of the biggest songs in the world in the past few years, including Rihanna's "Umbrella" and Mariah Carey's "Touch My Body." Dream let a backing track do most of the vocal work in the four-song set, but the crowd loved the bump-and-grind fare regardless. Since his costume changes almost outnumbered the songs on his set list, it's safe to assume that the Dream will be spending more time in front of the camera, so to speak.
Before long, the curtain was raised, revealing a gigantic 21-piece band--eight strings and four horns in tow--as well as a catwalk, three staircases, and multiple giant video screens.
Jay-Z and Mary J. Blige emerged atop the catwalk, and the band dove right into the opening notes to "Can't Knock the Hustle," a sensational opener and the defining track from Jay's 1996 debut, Reasonable Doubt.
Jay departed, leaving the stage to Blige, whose 80-minute set was full of impassioned calls for loyalty, responsibility, and female empowerment, with plenty of straight-up party jams mixed in. Blige's female fans look to her as the woman who has been through what they've been through and then some, but with a platform to vocalize that joy and pain. The result is both celebration and catharsis.
Blige has so many huge tracks that she decided to play short snippets of many of them, as Jay-Z would do later. While "Hustle" was an incredible opener, the place exploded when Jay returned to do the late Notorious B.I.G.'s verse on Blige's "Real Love."
In the latter half of the set, Blige displayed an unbelievable fire--think Tina Turner-level heat--and sustained it for at least a half dozen songs. At the end of the moving "No More Drama," Blige launched into a diatribe: "I'm tired of people judging me for what I did and who I was and not giving me credit for the progress I made and who I am today!"
That's the sign of the ultimate professional: when an artist is able to express a level of emotion and passion onstage night after night to make fans feel like they're witnessing something special.
Stirring ballads like "Not Gon' Cry" and "Your Child" followed, the latter of which, about a man who fathers a child with a mistress but denies its existence, was played out onstage by three actors. And then there were the hits for which Blige didn't need to sing a single word, like "I'm Goin' Down," as she had a vocal choir of thousands singing along. She closed with yet another ode to renewal and self-confidence, "Just Fine."
Jay-Z emerged from atop the catwalk almost as soon as the lights went down, jumping into "Say Hello" off his widely hailed 2007 album, American Gangster, which saw him return to telling hustler tales over soul-drenched beats.
Accompanied by a scaled-down band that also featured a DJ, Jay relied heavily on a dynamite horn section throughout, particularly on fantastic tracks like "Roc Boys," also from Gangster.
Once Jay began digging into his back catalog, it was alarming how many hits he's crafted, literally a guided tour of hip-hop's past decade-plus, nearly every song serving as the defining track of a particular season or year. There was the swagger-driven "I Just Wanna Love U," "Can I Live," "Jigga What Jigga Who," "H To the Izzo," the raucous "99 Problems," "Dead Presidents," "Can I Get A..." and the pitch-perfect "Song Cry," on which Blige came out to sing the chorus.
The set peaked with an amazing rendition of "Dirt Off Your Shoulder," followed by "Blue Magic," and "Minority Report," Hova's take on the horrific aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. "Ya'll ready for change," he asked, as an image of Barack Obama appeared ion the giant video screen behind him. "I'm just a free American citizen giving his free American opinion," he said.
An aural assault of even more hits followed, from "Money Ain't a Thang" to "Big Pimpin.'"
Fittingly, the night ended with "Heart of the City (Ain't No Love)," with Blige filling in for the sampled hook and infusing it with fire, much in the way that Jaguar Wright did on the live version from Jay-Z's 2001 Unplugged set.
It was a night to remember, two artists laying the Blueprint for how hip-hop ages with class and heart without losing the fire and spirit from which it spawned.