Jay-Z at Yankee Stadium: Another Monumental NY Night

Two weeks on from the historic JAŸ-Z 30 New York shows, Sean C reflects on what was a momentous night.

Friday, July 10th

When the show was announced I was excited to see how Jay would perform Reasonable Doubt 30 years later, having been involved in Reasonable Doubt as a co-producer of "Can't Knock the Hustle" with my long time friend Knobody. I was aware that these anniversary shows had been planned years in advance and everything would be deliberate.

Myself, my girl and her friend got there around 7:30pm and had no problem walking in, getting wrist bands and floating through. There were True Yorkers rocking Tims, Yankee fitteds and jerseys everywhere, as well as a lot of fans that you can tell flew in for it. Ran into familiar faces like DJ Premier who produced "D'Evils" and "Bring It On" on Reasonable... And arrived just in time to catch Young Guru, 9th Wonder, Rance (1500) give music journo B-Dot a hard time about his latest "Hottest Rapper" list.

While my son and I are looking for the lounge, we wind up backstage after seeing Lenny S and running into Annie Chen. I end up in Nas’ dressing room. I had no idea he was popping out. He says "Last time we were together the Knicks won.. It's gonna be another monumental NY night!" I'm not fully grasping what he means at that time. I'm really just thinking he's gonna do his part on Dead Presidents and dip. (Not the case) I dap him up and we roll out.

Showtime

Fast forward to showtime.

Lights out.

Jay-Z on the big screen getting his hair cut by his wife. Camera keeps panning out until you see an empty Yankee Stadium with just him and Beyoncé. The crowd is losing it!! This visual said so much without any dialogue.

"We're going back to beginning"

Then you hear the beginning of "Can't Knock.." and Beyoncé comes out to sing Mary's part. I heard someone say "Oh Shit this how you setting off!!"

This set the tone for what's about to happen.

For me I realized that he's gonna do the songs in album sequence. "Can't Knock" is first.

(A song that was on a beat tape from Knobody's apt on 108th St. is now a classic playing in Yankee Stadium.. fulfilling)

My Favorite Moments

From here I'll just give you my favorite moments.

Once he goes into Dead Presidents I spot a group of dudes who look to be in their 30's reciting every line. These guys were toddlers when this album was released. Speaks volumes.

I'm expecting Nas for the hook but nah, he waits 'til the last chorus and drops "World is Yours." Nas comes out in Mets gear and the energy went to 1000. Now I know what Nas meant. This was historic. 2 men that held so much weight in hip hop standing together. They went back and forth over each other's songs hyping each other like they were a duo. When Nas rapped over Jay's "Where I'm From" you could still hear Young Guru and the team throw in the pianos from N.Y. State of Mind in the same key. This was symbolic of how they were walking on each other's blocks.

Another moment that felt emotional was seeing Jay's oldest daughter Blue Ivy walk to the piano and play the intro to "Feeling It". Seeing Jay make fatherhood and family a goal the same way he did for money and luxury was evolution. I was a young father to a 6 year old son at the time of RD release. Now he's here with me watching his dads work be celebrated, while alongside Jadakiss, Khaled, Biggs, Fab and Swizz.

I was curious to see how Jay would perform "Brooklyn's Finest" without Biggie. To make it fresh approaching Big's verses, Guru laid Biggie instrumentals under the vocal while Big rapped and bounced to the beat on the screen. No AI.

Later he performed "Bring it on" with his mentor Jaz-O. Jay was Jaz's sideman for years and his intro to the industry. He gave Jaz his well deserved flowers. During that performance there was classic footage of Mike Tyson on screen that had been edited to mouth the words of the song using AI. Fire!!! He could have done that with Biggie for "Bk's Finest" and it would have been insane. I think he wanted to keep the integrity of his clips out of respect.

The Encore

He ended Reasonable Doubt with the last song from the album, "Regrets"… He said "Good Night" and the crowd started to leave.

I've seen Jay before and knew it's not done if the band doesn't leave.

Lights out but a piano is set up. 2 minutes later Alicia appears to perform Empire State of Mind in Yankee Stadium. Classic!!

After that Jay tells Guru to surprise him and play some records. After running through a few Jay deep cuts and classics including "Roc Boys", Guru throws on "You Don't Know".. the stadium loses it!

"Nah Gu!! that's Blueprint.. you cheatin.. we do that tomorrow" damn.

Come to find out after talking to Guru only one of his turntables were working. He had to switch and improvise.

An Exclusive Club

Playing the Garden is a huge accomplishment for an artist but there are only a handful of artists that get to stand on stage at Yankee Stadium. That's an exclusive club. To hear records that I produced in that venue was satisfying. It's dope to stand next to someone going crazy over your record and they don't know who you are.

They have no idea how you found the sample for "Roc Boys" on a 45 while digging for drums on the Lower East Side and chopped it in the studio the same day. Or that in the beginning you and your best friend made beats every day in his Mama's House… played 'em for Biggs and Dame Dash who lived across the street and that Marcus Miller sample that Knobody chopped became "Can't Knock the Hustle"… Then used that building block as a piece to add to a whole career.