Pharrell looked at Jay-Z with doting eyes of admiration and said, “This is the birthplace of hip hop, y’all birthed a new king.”
It was hard to refute the notion after, for close to two hours straight, Jay-Z performed old and news songs from The Blueprint 3 for approximately 20,000 screaming fans at New York’s Madison Square Garden on Sept. 11. There were so many dynamics in the room, so many moving parts it was hard to take in. Fans were on their mobile devices, telling friends and family what they were experiencing at the show. The crowd was as diverse as any show, any musical genre can get. Music industry business people stood in amazement of the show as if they were average fans.
Watching Jay and Kid Cudi and his skinny jeans was an exceptionally ironic moment, considering the elder artist has chastised the tight denim. But the execution of Jay-Z’s “Already Home” was flawless. Mary was so ghetto chic and the ladies in the audience went berserk for her. Not to be outdone were Beyonce and Rihanna, who both had their stellar moments as well. The crowd loved John Mayor and his rendition of “DOA” and other songs. No disrespect, but T-Pain was not in the house. Diddy hopping on stage was interesting, considering nobody could quite understand what his purpose was. Hey, even Amber Rose quietly got on stage as her man Kanye performed. Everybody wanted to be there.
But, there was a purpose for the evening and that was to pay homage to those lose in the tragedy on September 11.
“We celebrate life tonight…we having a good time,” Jay said. “Terrorists took down our towers they thought they weakened us, they were wrong. We stand here tonight even stronger….we run this town, New York City.”
Below are some of the images from the historic evening as well as viral videos of the show.
