Jay-Z Live

Tickets for this one-off performance at London’s Alexandra Palace sold out in 15 seconds. Certainly the excitement is palpable amongst the 7000-strong crowd crushed into the grand Main Hall, the sense of anticipation heightened by the giant digital count-down on the enormous on-stage video screens.

On cue, Jay Z swaggers on stage wearing sunglasses and “all black everything”, and tears through a selection of cuts from latest album, 'The Blueprint 3', including ‘D.O.A’ and ‘Run This Town’. The full backing band adds some real percussive punch to ‘99 Problems’ and gets the crowd dancing to the futuristic funk of the Pharrell Williams' produced ‘I’m a Hustler, Baby’.

From such a promising opening, the set begins to fall a little flat. Jay-Z introduces Memphis Bleek to help hype the crowd but curiously Jay himself doesn’t seem to get out of second gear. There are pauses between songs, the ‘H-to-the-Izzo’ segue into Jackson 5’s ‘I Want you Back’ doesn’t quite work and the crowd seem unfamiliar with much of the slower material off the new album.

Jay Z’s ode to NY, the epic if somewhat cringe-worthy ‘Empire State of Mind’, gets the crowd singing along but they seem distracted, frustrated even, as Jay then auto-pilots through a medley of hits. Jay-Z’s flow and superlative word-play are what set him apart as the CEO of hip-hop but the crowd gets to enjoy little of this. It’s all chorus and bluster. He teases with the piano loop of ‘Lucifer’ but then cuts straight into the pomp of ‘Crazy in Love’. A couple of verses of ‘Big Pimpin’ enliven sections of the audience but as Jay-Z exits the stage, the crowd aren’t particularly vocal for his return.

Jay-Z comes back on stage to play, inevitably, ‘Encore’ and brings out... ahem... “protege” Mr Hudson for an ill-conceived rendition of ‘Young Forever’. As Jay Z bids the crowd goodnight with backing band playing “Smells Like Teen Spirit” (huh?), the lights go up and we head home, somewhat confused and ever-so-slightly disappointed.

Words by Steven Appleyard