Three nights, online streaming parties and more made it all the more real: when Jay-Z moves, people pay attention, both young and old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
New York City was already having an epic summer, one of those periods when you look back fondly and every story gets a tad more exaggerated for effect. Then Jay-Z decided to hold court in the Bronx\u2019s most hallowed ground for three nights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Including one where the concert started well after midnight, ended near 3 a.m., and still felt like the greatest rap concert ever for some.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jay-Z\u2019s cachet is effortless cool. Even when rapping with the feelings of a C-suite CEO about Target boycotts and Amazon, there\u2019s a light sincerity that shows up when he references the trials and tribulations of his debut album and his 2001 album, which properly crystallized all the self-mythology he had cooked up in the years prior. But the question remained. Would a 56-year-old Jay-Z, one who has been removed from crafting any new solo music for nearly a decade, command the attention of the world at large? Or was it nostalgia that led people to enjoy a \u201cHov Summer\u201d for the first time in ages?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The answer? Depends on who you ask.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\u00a0<\/div>\n\n\u00a0<\/div>\n\u00a0<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\u00a0<\/div>\n\u00a0<\/div>\n\nView this post on Instagram<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\u00a0<\/div>\n\n\n\u00a0<\/div>\n\u00a0<\/div>\n\u00a0<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\u00a0<\/div>\n\u00a0<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\u00a0<\/div>\n\u00a0<\/div>\n\u00a0<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\u00a0<\/div>\n\u00a0<\/div>\n<\/div>\nA post shared by Roc Nation (@rocnation)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
For a generation of music fans, three nights in New York romanticized Jay-Z the rapper and, in many ways, Shawn Carter the person. One night was dedicated to the joy of seeing his wife and his eldest daughter take in the moment; another to a mostly solo effort to remind people there are levels to this. There were surprises, even slights, from so-called online activists over his recent Target deal and more. As he thanked fans for staying late due to a four-hour delay caused by unverified ticket holders rushing the gates, he urged caution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t want to see people get trampled,\u201d he told the crowd that endured for the long haul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chatting with friends who booked flights, bought tickets, and booked hotel stays just to experience this, I understood the moment. Over the weekend, they relayed back what they witnessed, whether it was Beyonc\u00e9 in full shimmering glam for \u201cCan\u2019t Knock The Hustle\u201d or the mini-city that sprouted up near Yankee Stadium. They purchased bootleg T-shirts, laughed with strangers, playfully argued about which album was better or meant more and left as a community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou should have come!\u201d was their main reply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Durags, Timbs, Yankee hats and Hov merch were everywhere. Some fans dressed like \u2018 90s-era Mary J. Blige or even Beyonc\u00e9 circa \u201c\u201903 Bonnie & Clyde.\u201d If there was a \u201cdress code\u201d as there was for the \u201cCowboy Carter\u201d and \u201cRenaissance\u201d tours, everyone got the memo. Even the younger crowd who wanted to be part of the moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe people at Yankee Stadium understand the significance, as did Roots Picnic,\u201d Justin Tinsley, senior writer at ESPN\u2019s Andscape, told theGrio. \u201cNow, does my 15-year-old cousin? He understands the hype. The same way we would\u2019ve understood Prince at 15.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tinsley has written extensively on Jay-Z for years, recently focusing on the midpoint of rap\u2019s biggest mythmaker and his status as the leader of America\u2019s biggest show: the Super Bowl Halftime Show. He stood inside Yankee Stadium on Saturday, the celebratory night for \u201cThe Blueprint,\u201d and laughed, knowing people near him shed legit tears to \u201cSong Cry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cJay doing all this is important, just from a cultural context,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not about being his biggest fan. But seeing something like this in real time isn\u2019t lost on me just from a documenting history standpoint.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He added, \u201cI can\u2019t expect a [NBA] YoungBoy fan to understand. Not even questioning their intelligence or anything. But the same way my mom used to ask why I listened to Jay, UGK, or OutKast when her generation was right there? You get it when you get it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\nDuring the course of a weekend, internet FOMO raged. Some streamers lifted the live TikTok streams for attendees, so those not in NYC could watch with them; the equivalent of paying your neighborhood bootleg man whenever he had the newest DVDs. Small physical watch parties developed across the country, and those who hadn\u2019t bought tickets for announced shows in London, Paris and Los Angeles began plotting their way to see the show<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At 56, Jay-Z has become his own prophecy. On \u201cEncore,\u201d the triumphant, buoyant swan-song affair from 2003\u2019s \u201cThe Black Album,\u201d he proclaimed himself rap\u2019s Grateful Dead, a nod to the band fronted by Jerry Garcia, with a devout fanbase that would follow them everywhere. Watching people wait by the hour to get inside Yankee Stadium on Sunday night, going into the early stretches of Monday morning, made that sentiment all the more real.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Every small moment became its own headline. Packing 120,000 people into a baseball cathedral over the course of three nights is no small feat. All the talk of irrelevancy seemed dead the moment a small video of Beyonc\u00e9 sheering down his fro into a fade and the crowd erupted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
No matter what, a \u201cJay-Z Summer\u201d remains a thing. Whether it\u2019s a nostalgia tour or people wanting to hear one last battle with perceived foes and slights, he can still command the center of the rap world at a moment\u2019s notice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Look no further than the thousands who waited outside to catch even a small glimpse of history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nSource: TheGrio<\/a>
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Three nights, online streaming parties and more made it all the more real: when Jay-Z moves, people pay attention, both young and old. New York City was already having an epic summer, one of those periods when you look back fondly and every story gets a tad more exaggerated for effect. Then Jay-Z decided to hold court in the Bronx\u2019s most hallowed ground for three nights. Including one where the concert started well after midnight, … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","generate_page_header":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[50,371],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-feed-content","category-thegrio","infinite-scroll-item","masonry-post","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-50"],"featured_image_src":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"auto feed","author_link":"https:\/\/kmojfm.com\/wp\/author\/autofeed\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmojfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmojfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmojfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmojfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmojfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78107"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kmojfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78132,"href":"https:\/\/kmojfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78107\/revisions\/78132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmojfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmojfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmojfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}