Jockin Jay-Z

It was a packed house and the lights were low in anticipation for hip hop's biggest star. Rhianna's voice came blaring through the speakers as the hit song "Run This Town" began to play throughout the Frank Erwin Center. The crowd noise reached fever pitch as Jay-Z rose from beneath the stage draped in "all black everything"! Yea, black diamonds too. Wow... Anyway, As

Hova got into his set I was really impressed with his stage presence and charisma. He really commanded the crowd and captivated the audience at every moment of the show.

Jay-Z and his band (which was really good by the way) ran through many of his classic songs like "Hard Knock Life", "H.O.V.A", "Excuse Me Miss", the Texas favorite and seemingly Pimp C tribute "Big Pimpin", "Can I Get A", and one of my personal favorites "Public Service Announcement". I counted 8 songs performed from the new album Blueprint 3. As a avid Hovita fan I have to say I was a little disappointed in the set selection at times. Since 1996 Jiggman has been a force in hip hop culture so I was upset that he didn't perform a song recorded before 2001-2002.

Nonetheless, the show was incredible!!! Jay Hova was impressive to say the least and seemed to really connect with the crowd. At the end of his set he went threw the audience and personally thanked about 20 people in each section of the arena for coming out and rockin with him. I thought that was pretty cool. Being about 6 rows away from one of the best rappers alive (sorry lil wayne) was cool in itself. And, although I was late N.E.R.D and front runner Pharrell get much props for doing their thing as well. I have seem them perform several times and they never disappoint. Overall a great hip hop show and one I would have hated to miss.

D. Griff