Jay-Z surprises fans at Trafalgar Square pop up in London
Jay-Z surprises fans at a Trafalgar Square pop up in London celebrating his milestone tour and iconic albums.
Jay-Z kicked off his first anniversary concert in London with a high-powered show featuring special guests Lauryn Hill, DJ Khaled, Idris Alba and others.
The rap titan kicked off his first of two anniversary concerts at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London around 8:37 p.m. local time on Friday, Sept. 4 part of his “Jay-Z 30” concert series. Alba , who played in the 2007 crime film “American Gangster,” opened up the show saying the spoken-word intro from Jay-Z’s 2007 song of the same name, “American Gangster.”
“London, you ready?!” Jay-Z asked the crowd as he took the stage donning a Yankees cap and shades. “I want to thank you call for coming out celebrating these 30 years.”
Midway through the show, Jay-Z surprised fans with a string of special guests including Hill as she performed the The Fugees classic 1996 track “Ready or Not.” She went on to perform her massive 1996 tune “Killing Me Softly” and more. The songs came out around the same year as his debut album.
“We’re both celebrating 30 years,” he told the crowd. “I appreciate you–forever a fan!”
The string of shows commemorates the 30th anniversary of his debut album “Reasonable Doubt,” released June 25, 1996. He’s also celebrating the 25th anniversary of his sixth studio album “Blueprint,” released Sept. 11, 2001.
During the show, he performed several hits from his 30-year career career including his 1998 anthem “Hard Knock Life” (Ghetto Anthem), “Jigga What, Jigga Who”(1998), “Beach Is Better” (2013),”Run This Town” (2009),”Empire State of Mind (2009) “On to the Next One” (2009), “Bam” (2017), “Family Fued” (2017), “Dead Presidents” (1996), “No Church in the Wild” (2011, “Song Cry” (2001) and more.
The Sept. 4 London show marks Jay-Z’s first solo headline show in the U.K. in over a decade. The date also marked his wife Beyoncé’s 45th birthday.
The “I Know” rapper’s last headline solo performance in the U.K. was Oct. 2013, when he took the stage at The O2 in London as part of his Magna Carta World Tour.
DJ Khaled, Wyclef join Jay-Z onstage during first anniversary show in London
DJ Khaled also graced the stage for his intro on as their 2022 song “God Did” setting the stage to perform his verse from the song.Shortly afterward, Wyclef joined Jay-Z onstage, and the two traded bars side by side.
Jay-Z kicked off his anniversary concert series with three massive hometown shows in New York in the summer.
The Grammy-winning rapper took the stage at at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, New York on July 10 to celebrate “Reasonable Doubt.” During the show daughter Blue Ivy and Beyoncé made surprise appearances. On July 11 JayZ commemorated his “The Blueprint” album, bringing out more special guests onstage including Eminem, Slick Rick and Pharrell Williams. His last “EXTRA INNINGS” show will took place on Sunday, July 12, to combine both shows with a star-studded concert featuring surprise appearances from Rihanna, Swizz Beatz, Jeezy, Beyoncé, Fat Joe and others.
Jay-Z is set to take the stage again in London on Sept. 5 before performing Paris on Sept. 10. He is also scheduled to perform and in Los Angeles on Oct. 23 and Oct. 24
Follow Caché McClay, the USA TODAY Network’s Beyoncé Knowles-Carter reporter, on Instagram, TikTok and X as @cachemcclay.