Jay Z At The Roundhouse, London

Jay Z's concert at the Roundhouse on 17th September 2009 was a breath of fresh air. We took 2 very good friends as a Thank You for all our dinners and times out on their behest. An intimate gathering to see a very gifted man. He did take his time coming to the stage - 10.45pm ....rumours have it he was busy singing his latest song on BBC's Jonathan Ross Show. What's next for this Titan. Well I hear he and Will Smith have just invested $10M to put a Musical about Fela Ransome Kuti's life on Broadway in New York. Well got to get linked up as we know who is best to play Fela - Wale Ojo.

Here's a great review of the Jay Z Gig:

Without wishing to disrespect one of London's loveliest venues, there's something incongruous about Jay-Z gracing the Roundhouse. He has, as he seldom tires of informing audiences, sold 26m albums in the US and made $35m from touring alone in the last 12 months. Among the venue's forthcoming attractions are Enter Shikari, Yo La Tengo, and a night featuring Let's Talk Tactics, Personal Space Invaders and Toxic Funk Berry, all of who clearly haven't. By his standards, it's effectively a gig in a Scouts' hut with Akela's brother doing the lights. Then again, the rapper has made a habit of incongruous places. Last weekend, he was onstage supporting legendary gangsta rap outfit Coldplay. The week before, he turned up in the audience at a New York gig by Grizzly Bear. In theory, there's nothing strange about Jay-Z at a post-rock gig: his new album evinces diverse tastes, featuring guest appearances from Australian singer-songwriter Luke Steele and Mr Hudson. But try telling that to Grizzly Bear's fans, many of who found their enthusiasm for watching their band do their stuff superseded by the desire to gawp at Jay-Z and his fragrant wife, the latter wearing the stoic expression spouses wear when dragged to experimental gigs by their other half.

You could adduce all this as evidence of an increasingly whimsical approach to his career as Jay-Z nears 40, but you can't deny the excitement generated in such a relatively small space. Almost three hours before he takes the stage (backed by a muscular live band who circumvent the problem of lousy sound that regularly bedevils hip hop gigs), nodding nonchalantly like a man who owns the place, the atmosphere is so overheated he could probably exclusively perform selections from Toxic Funk Berry and still cause the audience to howl. But he doesn't. Instead, backed by a vast film screen showing footage of Nirvana trashing their instruments, he rolls out the hits: a frantic Death Of Autotune, a brass-led Roc Boys, Give It 2 Me. It sounds and looks fantastic. In contrast to a lot of his peers, Jay-Z is a compelling, kinetic performer. The crowd delightedly raise their arms and make his trademark diamond shape with their fingers. Watching, there seems nothing whimsical about his performance. As usual, Jay-Z looks like a man who knows precisely what he's doing.

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