Mar. 18–We’re only three months into 2010, but last night’s show at the Mellon Arena may have been the hip-hop event of the year in Pittsburgh.
Unlike back in the ’90s heyday, there are only two or three rappers capable of packing an arena and two of them are pretty much out of commission, with Lil Wayne in jail and Eminem home doing God knows what.
That leaves Jay-Z, who has won the hip-hop game by raising up his own and outlasting everyone else. He hit the stage last night to a joyful, well-imbibed crowd clearly ready for a celebration.
The night began with Trey Songz, who doesn’t seem content to remain an opener for very long. To say that Trey was a hit with the ladies in the house would be putting it lightly. Fronting a band that had some surprising punch, Trey took it to the bedroom showing off that falsetto on hot-and-heavy songs like “Neighbors Know My Name” and the funked-up “Say Aah.” He would also prove useful later.
After a countdown to the tune of the Beastie Boys and Drake, Hova rose up from the floor in front of a 10-piece band with a fitting opener, “Run This Town.” From the get-go, it was louder than Slayer and seemed to expand in volume with each song.
They say if it’s too loud, you’re too old. That wasn’t an issue with these fans who spent a good deal of the time with their hands “up in the air” — hey! whoa! — spitting the hooks back at Jay-Z. Let’s say the volume did, however, obliterate some of the nuance he could have gotten from all those presumably fine musicians. They had a few precious moments to shine, like the soprano sax player rippling through “D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune).
The stage itself was a disappointment. Despite being a millionaire about 150 times over, when Jay went shopping for production he picked out the basic package (unlike the Black Eyed Peas). No visual frills outside of the screen towers, no center ramp, no dancers and no pop to the lighting.
Jay took the first few tunes on his own, then added muscle to the stage in the form of perennial sidekick Memphis Bleek, who helped him belt out “99 Problems” and “Show Me What You Got.” The former was a chance for Jay to give the guitarist some heavy metal love — and the video screens did morph into Marshall stacks — but the monster riff didn’t break out of the mix the way it should have.
The highlight in the first half of his set may have been the return of Trey for the throwback hook on “Heart of the City” and the Kid Cudi part on the staccato “Already Home.” Bridget Kelly stepped in for Alicia Keys on “Empire State of Mind,” assuring that everyone left the building with at least a mild case of tinnitus.
The other star on the bill, Young Jeezy, brought a fresh thrill and a much heavy, gruffer tone to “Real As It Gets.” While Jay has become the classy face of hip-hop, Jeezy comes on hard and pitbull tough, a la DMX. With Jay’s exit, Jeezy growled through his own set of rousing hits such as “I Luv It,” ”Go Getta” and “Soul Survivor,” with Akon pumped in. He injected the political element into the evening with Jay-Z by his side for “My President,” exalting the color of our new leader. (No booing ensued.)
Jay carried that momentum into “Dirt Off Your Shoulder,” which President Obama once quoted, but his real fun in the second set seemed to be the return to the basic turntable beats and old-school rap style of the “Reasonable Doubt” album with songs like “Can I Live.”
Free from the tight flow of the show, Jay-Z’s winning personality emerged as he joked with the fans about who really went back with him that far. “Sorry ladies,” he said after that medley, “we went into some other dark stuff. We’re gonna bring it back.”
If you’re keeping track, “Reasonable Doubt” was 10 albums ago. That’s an absurd degree of longevity for a rap star. Last night, Jay-Z made his point very LOUDLY why he’s been around that long
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