A day after announcing his return to the live stage while backed by the Roots at their Roots Picnic on May 30 in Philadelphia, JAŸ-Z has revealed even bigger plans.
The rap superstar, who has rarely performed in public since concluding his 4.44 Tour in late 2017, will play July 10-11 at New York’s Yankee Stadium. The first show is expected to honor the 30th anniversary of JAŸ-Z’s debut album, Reasonable Doubt, while the second will celebrate the 25th anniversary of The Blueprint, which came out the same day as the Sept. 11, 2011, terrorist attacks. The latter was followed with sequels in 2002 and 2009.
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Further details, including ticket on-sale information and whether the artist born Shawn Carter will be backed by the Roots or other live musicians, have yet to be made public.
“A full-throated response to ‘too much West Coast dick licking,’ Jay-Z’s debut posited young Shawn as the East Coast alpha male,” SPIN wrote of Reasonable Doubt in a May 2004 guide to the best of gangsta rap. “Jigga gave his days as a mover and shaker on the Brooklyn streets the Joel Silver multiplex treatment — midnight drug deals with Peruvian drug kings and Cristal-popping parties that go till six in the morning.”
As for The Blueprint, Andy Greenwald wrote for SPIN at the time that it “forsakes big pimping and gets personal, and by personal, we mean personal — we even learn which cousins used to wash behind lung Jigga’s ears (thanks, Mickey!). But look past the onanism and dig the planet’s most charismatic egoist flowing like the Cristal did on previous records. Plus: one-take vocals and a whole mess of steaming vitriol. Punk record of the year? Fo’sheazy!”
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