Jay-Z, a name synonymous with all things hip hop, made his way to Ypsilanti, Mich. on his Blueprint 3 tour last night.
Joining Jay-Z on the tour were J. Cole, who is the first rapper to sign to Jay-Z's Roc Nation label, 2009 XXL Freshman 10 rapper, Wale, and N*E*R*D. It was quite the impressive bill to go along with an interesting venue choice.
As people piled up in lines outside the Student Convocation Center on Eastern Michigan's campus, people seemed to be in an excited mood. Everyone debated who was more drunk, and kept proposing the question of the night, "Will they be serving beer inside?" I have to admit I had the same question in mind. Being on a school campus I figured that there would be no alcohol after I surpassed the doors. Well to everyone's surprise, people came out with wristbands calling for all the 21 and ups. One of the highlights of the night for me came with a girl, who was clearly already drunk, told the worker that she would need five wristbands because she plans on drinking a lot.
I have no interest in J. Cole at all, so I didn't go to my seat until Wale and the UCB band made their way to the stage. Wale was by far my favorite artist on the bill. Yes, I like him even more than the Hova. I first saw Wale earlier this summer in downtown Detroit at The Shelter, where he also appeared with the UCB band. The Shelter is a very small bar-like venue. Wale killed that setting. I was very intrigued to how him and the band would sound in a much larger setting, along with a crowd with little to none knowledge on him. The place was about half full during Wale's 30-minute set. He concentrated on performing songs like 'Pretty Girls,' 'World Tour,' and 'Mirrors,' which is understandable. This tour gave him a good chance to play his new songs to help promote the release of his debut album, 'Attention Deficit.' With a larger crowd than he's used to performing in front of, Wale utilized his time to give the crowd a taste of what he has to offer. For hardcore Wale fans like me in the crowd, this might have been a bit of a disappointed. I wanted to here some more of the classic mixtape material, and more solos from the UCB band.
Unsurprising, Wale closed with 'Chillin.' Not only is it a quality song, but it's a good one to perform live. Wale easily substitutes "DC," with whatever city he's in. Earlier in the set, Wale asked people standing near the stage what city they were representing. Detroit got louder applause over Ypsilanti. So, "DC chillin" became "Detroit Chillin." Wale made his way into the crowd during the song, which got more people off their seats and onto their feet. The song was over, and the lights came on. It was time to set the stage for N*E*R*D.
I've passed on seeing N*E*R*D a few times already, so it was great to finally get the chance to see Pharrell and company do their thing. Now, I'm no hardcore N*E*R*D fan, so you'll have to forgive me on not knowing the majority of the songs they were performing. I still appreciated all of it, as the band sounded superb.
At one point, Pharrell called for some ladies to come up on stage, and the girl that came with me, took off running. Now you must understand, we were sitting in the nosebleeds for this show. I didn't see her for the next 25 minutes. As I'm sure you can assume, she made it nowhere near the stage.
The set was great, and Pharrell even threw down 'Drop it Like it's Hot.' That was great to hear, but if you're going to do that song, why not throw in 'Grindin,' and 'Mr. Me Too.' That would have gotten the crowd rowdy.
Now came the moment everyone was waiting for. The stagehands started setting up for Jay-Z. When the 10-minute countdown came up on the big screens, cheers were heard all around. The time clicked down, the stadium was now packed, the curtain rose, and the band on stage started to play 'Run This Town.' From the the middle of the stage, Jay-Z rose from beneath, as Jay-Z rose, so did the crowd. No one was sitting anymore.
Jay-Z's set consisted of all his commercial success, along with new songs from 'Blueprint 3.' Honestly, I didn't like that album at all, so I could have done without those songs.
One thing I really enjoyed out of his set were his transitioning skills. I felt like Hova did a good job going from song to song. With quick acknowledgments to the crowd, he was able to hint to what song was coming, and get the crowd even more hyped. Example of this would be him simply asking the crowd what they were tuning to. Everyone yelled "the motherfucking greatness," and 'Dirt off Your Shoulder' played on.
Obviously with good transitioning, Jay-Z had good crowd interaction. Being a veteran of the industry, Jay-Z knows how to handle the crowd without coming off just plain stupid. He was smart, funny, and charming.
The highlight of his set might have been when he and the band busted into 'Big Pimpin,' and five seconds in he told the band to cut it, leaving the crowd perplexed.
"This is 'Big Pimpin' baby," Jay-Z said. "Everyone knows where they were when they first heard 'Big Pimpin.'"
Jay-Z said he wanted everyone to get whatever they could, a towel, a hat, a shirt, or if you're the girl next to me, a bra, and wave it in the air.
Another move Jay-Z did to my enjoyment, was bypass the encore crap, and instead of disappearing backstage, while people would probably chant "Hova," he remained onstage and shouted out people in the crowd. He went scavenging and yelled out things like, "I see you in your Rocawear shirt," and "Is that your girlfriend? She looks good." During this period, a couple people kept yelling "Burn Rubber" to him. Jay-Z later proclaimed that he needs a "tutorial on Burn Rubber." I'm sure the store owners love this, as it's great advertising for them. I was wearing a Burn Rubber fitted hat at the show, and I got asked by multiple people after the show ended what Burn Rubber was. I'm guessing a good amount of people may have even took to the Google to further investigate Burn Rubber.
After all the shout outs, Jay-Z went into 'Young Forever,' off the new album, which I must admit to being a great closer. At the end of the song, Jay-Z descended back beneath the stage, and the lights came on.
It was a great show, and like I said even though I'm not a big Jay-Z fan, it was great to see him live, because he is a legend.
That's all I have to say on that concert. On deck for me is comedian Daniel Tosh this Saturday, and in the hole is Saul Williams on Monday. I will be posting on both of those shows.
Thanks for reading,
The Magic Stick.
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