Jay-Z review – rap legend dazzles New York City with lavish spectacle, sharp bars and Beyoncé

Yankee Stadium, New York CityThe rapper celebrates 30 years of his classic debut album Reasonable Doubt with eye-popping visuals and special guests in a love letter to hip-hop cultureThe beauty of watching Jay-Z live is more than just watching him calmly spit bars that effortlessly prove why his career has been this long and brilliant; it’s also the complex but lovely feeling of watching an audience (and the artist himself) relive the past. It’s almost unfathomable that 30 years ago, Jay-Z was starting out as a relatively unknown rapper from Brooklyn chronicling his life as a hustler. Quite possibly the greatest pure MC of all-time – encompassing flow, patience, humor, live ability and his taste as an auteur – Jay built a career on restrained tales of wide-eyed dreams and braggadocious stanzas about financial gain.His 1996 debut album Reasonable Doubt was the start of that career, and Saturday night at New York City’s Yankee Stadium, Jay-Z will perform the album in order, front to back, making it impossible to forget its legacy in a visually stunning show that will split the difference between close connection and grand spectacle. At times, with a wide, movie-like screen backing Jay that shows funerals of presidents, footage of Mike Tyson, or his wife, Beyoncé, cutting his hair at the ballpark, the show feels influenced by previous tours like Watch the Throne mixed with the street romance of the 2002 movie Paid in Full. Yet, the care and attention to detail ensures that the 50,000-capacity venue will feel intimate, for the folks who heard the album and felt seen through its songs of regret and paranoia. Continue reading...