Meanwhile, Kanye West and Jay-Z are back in concert
Kanye West and Jay-Z returned to the stage on the same weekend, albeit thousands of kilometers apart and in very different contexts.
On the one hand, Ye inaugurated his first European tour after eleven years in Istanbul, claiming to have set an audience record with 118,000 spectators at the Atatürk Olympic Stadium. On the other hand, Jay-Z returned as a protagonist at the Roots Picnic in Philadelphia with what was his first solo headlining concert since at least 2019.
Kanye West’s is a particularly significant return after months marked by cancellations and controversies, including the recent one for the Reggio Emilia concert, originally scheduled for July 18th. The event which began at 9pm and continued until late at night with DJ sets, light shows and local guests, also saw the participation of Travis Scott.
However, Ye’s European tour comes after a long series of obstacles. In April the British government denied him entry into the country, resulting in the cancellation of his participation in the Wireless Festival. Scheduled dates in France, Poland and Switzerland were then missed. The Reggio Emilia prefecture banned West and Travis Scott from performing at the RCF Arena in Reggio Emilia on Friday, citing security reasons.
In Philadelphia, however, Jay-Z chose a completely different approach, building an hour and a half show that covered his entire career. Accompanied by the Roots, with whom he had already collaborated for “MTV Unplugged” in 2001, the rapper alternated classics such as “Run This Town”, “N****s in Paris”, “Excuse Me Miss” and “Can I Live” with a long series of guests linked to the city scene.
The show was also Jay-Z’s first major live return after years of limited stage activity and nearly nine years after the release of his last solo album, “4:44.” According to Variety, the performance confirmed how the rapper remains “one of the best rappers alive”, capable of transforming a career retrospective into something more than a simple nostalgic exercise.
