Jay-Z is busy already saving the rest of hip-hop. Now, the legendary Webster Hall has scheduled the Grammy-award winning artist to headline the reopening of the venue in the East Village on April 26.
The iconic venue was shut down back in 2017 for renovations as part of its sale to AEG and Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment (the company that owns Barclays Center). Now they’re christening its return with a performance from Hov.
The only issue — tickets started around $300 and are reportedly reselling at $800 a pop.
Jay Z is playing the re-opening of Webster Hall. Pre-sale tickets START at $250.
According to the site, the tickets are “a resale marketplace for event tickets.” The website places tickets for sale “by individuals who can no longer attend the events that they purchased, and by professional resellers.”
In operation since 1886, Webster Hall started off as a storied club called the Ritz. Since then it has grown to become one of the biggest independent venues in New York. Still, although Webster Hall has hosted some of the biggest names, the famous venue Hall has always had a grimy hole-in-the-wall feel.
Likewise, East Village is a neighborhood that’s been there forever. There are old-school bars, performance spaces that share the streets with cocktail lounges, boutiques, vintage shops, tattoo parlors and more.
Going there to see Jay-Z for $800 doesn’t only sound right, it doesn’t feel right.
“When we were thinking about who would be the right choice to open this legendary venue, we knew it had to be a world-famous New York City icon,” said Brett Yormark, chief executive officer of BSE Global said in a press release.
“No one fits that description better than Jay-Z, who will join an unparalleled list of celebrated performers who have played Webster Hall.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BwZgYwFDQDD/
To be fair, there aren’t going to be many places where you can see Jay-Z for lower than $300 bucks. Additionally, no one is suggesting that he isn’t worth the watch. Plus, he is performing another installment of his rare B-sides tapes. For these prices, the concert should be at an arena with an entire experience to foot — not at a private venue.
The concert hall says in a press release that the recent renovation “aims to preserve the iconic features of the venue while modernizing it to meet today’s entertainment and guest experience standards.” I guess that means more expensive ticket prices.
If one thing is for sure, Jay-Z is a billionaire who knows how to move like one. Maybe his financial preachings on 4:44 only suggest that maybe we’re too broke to see him.
Others set to perform there include Patti Smith and Her Band, Rosalia, MGMT, Empire of the Sun, Old Dominion and Chromeo and you can cop tickets online here.
Friday releases have become customary for hip-hop’s album dumps but today (Friday, Nov 30th) was one for the books.
Just for a brief snapshot: there was Earl Sweatshirt’s Some Rap Songs, which has been long awaited since his last album, I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside, was released in 2015. Kodak Black continued his momentum after being released from prison with the single “Calling My Spirit,” Lil Baby dropped his second studio album, Street Gossip, Big K.R.I.T., dropped a surprise album, Double Down, and Chance The Rapper returned with the single. “The Man Who.”
We’re talking household names that have already made an impact on the game, all in one night. But throughout all the noise and ooh’s and ahh’s, one verse cut clear through and stood alone: Jay-Z’s feature on Meek Mill’s single, “What’s Free”.
Now, for too many reasons that one the internet lost their collective minds. Anytime Jay-Z raps it’s an event, he arguably pulled off the verse of the year but weeks removed from the last day of December and, apparently, he dissed Kanye?
This was the line everybody went crazy over:
“No red hat, don’t Michael and Prince me and Ye //
They separate you when you got Michael and Prince’s DNA //
I ain’t one of those house (expletives) you bought //
My house like a resort, my house bigger than yours,”
To be fair, ever since Jay-Z and Beyonce didn’t attend Kanye and Kim’s wedding in 2014, their relationship hasn’t been quite the same but the duo, who have countless classics together under their belt, clearly started to go in a different direction after Ye’s public rants during 2016’s Saint Pablo tour where Ye said,
“Don’t call me after the robbery and say ‘how you feelin?’ You wanna know how I’m feelin? Come by the house,” he tells a packed crowd at his Seattle concert. “Bring the kids by the house. Like we’re brothers. Let’s sit down.”
If anyone knows the Carter’s, you know they move discreetly, so you can imagine why the tie was severed at this point.
Kanye’s decision to dive into politics didn’t help his case either. Between championing Trump, wearing the MAGA hat, saying slavery was a “choice” and going to the White House, we all could see there was clear contrast in paths between him and Hov, especially given how Jay has been socially active on the other side of Kanye’s political sphere — fighting for prison reform and even going back and forth with 45 himself.
Somebody please inform Jay-Z that because of my policies, Black Unemployment has just been reported to be at the LOWEST RATE EVER RECORDED!
He even gave some bars on his 2017 Grammy-nominated studio album 4:44:
“I know people backstab you, I felt that too //
But this fuck everybody attitude ain’t natural //
But you ain’t the same, this ain’t Kumba Ye //
But you got hurt because you did cool by Ye //
You give him $20 million without blinking //
He gave you 20 minutes onstage, fuck what was he thinking? //
‘Fuck wrong with everybody?’ is what you saying //
But if everyone is crazy, you’re the one that’s insane.”
Why, now, wouldn’t that be aimed at Kanye on Meek’s album?
However, like much of Jay’s bars, there’s more than meets the eyes. After catching wind of the debate over the Ye diss, Jay decided to log on to twitter to clarify it himself.
The line clearly meant don’t pit me against my brothers no matter what our differences are (red hat) now go pick up Meek album . Drake and Meek on there together .
Leave it to Jay-Z for everyone to run off with the meaning of a bar that was the polar opposite of it’s intended meaning. But the bar was brilliant, really.
Instead of doing what the WorldStar enthusiasts, instigators, and President Trump want, Jay-Z decided not to bash his long-time friend. In the example used in the verse, Jay- Z actually thinks it’s counterproductive to feud with his comparably influential peer unlike Michael Jackson and Prince in the 80’s and 90’s.
Jay, who on 4:44 talked about Black prosperity and had songs like “Family Feud,” is living out those principals with this move and it’s really a power play and message to the hip-hop community about unification. Meek’s Championshipsfeatureatures a verse from the Drake.
Meek’s album is an ode to making it through trials and systems placed in front of us to victory. He talks about his battle with the courts and his freedom, the need for community and what triumph for him looks like.
Jay’s verse wasn’t a diss at Ye but rather a call for strength in numbers. Ye even commented on Jay’s explanation suggesting Throne 2 album. Hov took the high road with Ye, only time will tell if the poeple will too.
Jay-Z has been dropping hints to a project he’s currently working on called 4:44.
The numbers have been placed all over NYC including several subway stations like the Jay St. stop in Brooklyn as well as Times Square. Signs were also spotted in Los Angeles.
The ambiguous ads left the music industry in a state of confusion as media and fans tried to figure out what the numbers meant. Blogs crafted theories attempting to decode the numbers, but no site could figure it out.
Variety’sRoy Trakin went in with the breakdown of what the numbers could possibly mean,
Jay-Z and Beyonce have both attached significance to the number “4,” sporting matching “IV” tattoos on their wedding, while Jay Z’s birthday is December 4 and Beyonce’s is September 4. Their daughter’s name Blue Ivy (IV, the Roman numeral for 4). He’s also released songs called “22 Twos” and “44 Fours.” Others speculate it’s the long-awaited Blueprint 4 or the :44 could mean the eagerly anticipated Jigga-Bey collab. Or could it be a reference to the birth of the couple’s twins?
Trust me, when those numbers were revealed, and knowing that Jay-Z was behind it, I bugged.
Especially after seeing Swizz beats and Jigga together in May on Instagram with the caption “AlbumModeZone”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BTsr3-YD_Dh/
Alright, Hov are you just chillin’ laughing at us? Like, what exactly is 4:44? Is it an album? Is it a video album? Could it all just be a hoax?
An ad premiered during Game 3 of the NBA Finals last night giving us at least some answers.
The commercial had incredible visuals and starts out with Mahershala Ali’s slowly creeping out of the darkness to the toughest fuckin beat. The scene then cuts to Ali sparring with a punching bag. Viewers then got to see the amazing cast of who would be starring in the film with Ali.
No big deal just another Academy Award winner, Lupita Nyong’o, and Donald Glover. It turns out 4:44 is a collaboration between Tidal and Sprint and it is a film that will debut on Tidal.
And it’s rated NC-17, it’s finna be lit
Excited to bring @Sprint customers exclusive content through our partnership with @TIDALHiFi – more news coming tomorrow!! pic.twitter.com/YIbZ4h5Zoq
There is obviously still speculation if Jay-Z is dropping an album and once we followed the link it brought us to a landing page that said we would find out more tomorrow. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
