On Monday night rapper Jay-Z took to the stage at Carnegie Hall where he sang from a list of his greatest hits and a new single to a sold out crowd.
At one point the world’s best selling rapper managed to debut his newest song “Glory” written for his 1-month-old daughter Blue Ivy Carter. Sounding emotional after finishing the ode to his daughter he told the crowd:
“I didn’t think I was going to make it through that one,” adding, “That was tough.”
Jay-Z is only the second hip-hop act to grace the Carnegie Hall stage following in the footsteps of Wyclef Jean who appeared alongside Stevie Wonder, Eric Clapton and Whitney Houston in 2001.
For his turn at the Carnegie Hall stage Jay-Z also had some guests including Alicia Keys and Nas. The rapper was also backed by a 30-plus strong orchestra that included musical guest ?uestlove of The Roots.
The Grammy winner rapper put on the concert for charity and will host a second charity concert later in the week.
While some tickets for the Jay-Z Carnegie Hall performance were made available to the public most were sold in private sale form for prices ranging from $500 to $2,500. Proceeds from the Carnegie Hall show will go to benefit the United Way of New York City and the Shawn Carter Scholarship Foundation.
Among hits performed on the night were:
“Hard Knock Life,” “99 Problems” and “Dirt Off Your Shoulder.” The orchestra also played a medley of Billy Joel’s “New York State of Mind,” Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York” and Gil Scott-Heron’s “New York Is Killing Me.”
That’s one Jay-Z concert I would love to see arrive on Blu-ray.
Would you have liked to attend the Jay-Z Carnegie Hall concert?
