- 834
- 10
- Joined
- Nov 14, 2003
True I was wondering the same thing
[| -- Jay-Z & Mary J Blige: The 2008 "Heart Of The City" Tour -- |]
True I was wondering the same thing
- 3,953
- 19
- Joined
- Jan 7, 2004
Just wanna make sure if this is the same tour
It is, right?
[h2]Hova Diaries[/h2]
I've now been working with Jay-Z on his live show for 5 days. If you read my last post, I said they were asking me to recommend a DJ. Ididn't want to write that they had already picked Neil Armstrong as the DJ because I wasn't sure if he had announced it yet. So I kept it vague. Noweverybody's asking me to recommend this guy or that guy. They have a DJ! I didn't end up recommending anyone, I just came in and gave my input on themusic.
Questlove is the musical director for the band. He and I both came in at the beginning of the week when the band had already rehearsed for a few days andknew all the songs. This is a whole new experience for Neil so I'm giving him lots of pointers on how to interact with the band, what samples to scratch onfor which song, how to optimize the DJ set-up for this type of show, etc. He's doing good. I'm helping the band and the DJ work together and I'malso giving them input on the set as a whole, suggesting transitions and helping the guy on the Protools rig bring out certain elements of the songs. On Kanyeshows we've never had a Protools rig. This show is really different from Kanye's, especially for the DJ. When I started working with Kanye, it was justme, him and John Legend on a big stage. Everything basically grew from there, so I stayed at the nucleus of the show, playing all the tracks and coming up withset lists with Kanye. In Jay-Z's show the DJ is mostly there to add some scratches and fly some samples over what the band is playing. That's anotherreason why I wasn't really comfortable suggesting a DJ when they first called me: I wasn't sure what I'd be getting him into.
It's been real cool working with Jay and Quest. There's no egos, everyone's just been focused and easy to communicate with. Earlier in the weekI was talking to Jay about the picture on the back of "Volume 1″ and how ill Biggie's outfit was. Look it up if you don't remember what I'mtalking about. Jay was like "I remember when Big showed up at that show wearing peach. We all looked at him like "this n*gga…'" I had metJay before (as documented in these pages) but this was actually the first time I met Ahmir. Dude was mad cool right away. Gave me like 500 GB of mp3's andasked about Kid Sister's album. He also gave me the new Roots album, it's dope. I remember hearing that Young Guru was a DJ and followed the old DMCbattles (that's Roc-A-Fella's in-house engineer, as seen in the Fade to Black movie). When I met himhe asked me about my Sunglasses Is A Must DVD right away. It's a trip because I meet these people mostly through my association with Kanye but I don'tnecessarily expect them to know about my background as a battle DJ. When we were doing all those battles with the Allies it's not like there were anycurrent rappers at those events. It was always Grandmaster Caz and the Arsonists, not like State Property or whoever.
In the midst of all this Kanye's been calling with random stream-of-consciousness stories, but also telling me about all the crazy (top secret) stuffhe's planning for the Glow In The Dark US leg. Let's just say, whatever happened in Europe stays in Europe. He's coming up with a whole new show. Ithink he's getting a kick out of me working with Jay. Because like I was explaining to my mom this morning, it's basically Jay-Z reaching out tohis DJ to bring something to his show. It's good for him too!
Anyway, I'm outta here tomorrow. Get ready for Winter Music!
[h2]Hova Diaries[/h2]
I've now been working with Jay-Z on his live show for 5 days. If you read my last post, I said they were asking me to recommend a DJ. Ididn't want to write that they had already picked Neil Armstrong as the DJ because I wasn't sure if he had announced it yet. So I kept it vague. Noweverybody's asking me to recommend this guy or that guy. They have a DJ! I didn't end up recommending anyone, I just came in and gave my input on themusic.
Questlove is the musical director for the band. He and I both came in at the beginning of the week when the band had already rehearsed for a few days andknew all the songs. This is a whole new experience for Neil so I'm giving him lots of pointers on how to interact with the band, what samples to scratch onfor which song, how to optimize the DJ set-up for this type of show, etc. He's doing good. I'm helping the band and the DJ work together and I'malso giving them input on the set as a whole, suggesting transitions and helping the guy on the Protools rig bring out certain elements of the songs. On Kanyeshows we've never had a Protools rig. This show is really different from Kanye's, especially for the DJ. When I started working with Kanye, it was justme, him and John Legend on a big stage. Everything basically grew from there, so I stayed at the nucleus of the show, playing all the tracks and coming up withset lists with Kanye. In Jay-Z's show the DJ is mostly there to add some scratches and fly some samples over what the band is playing. That's anotherreason why I wasn't really comfortable suggesting a DJ when they first called me: I wasn't sure what I'd be getting him into.
It's been real cool working with Jay and Quest. There's no egos, everyone's just been focused and easy to communicate with. Earlier in the weekI was talking to Jay about the picture on the back of "Volume 1″ and how ill Biggie's outfit was. Look it up if you don't remember what I'mtalking about. Jay was like "I remember when Big showed up at that show wearing peach. We all looked at him like "this n*gga…'" I had metJay before (as documented in these pages) but this was actually the first time I met Ahmir. Dude was mad cool right away. Gave me like 500 GB of mp3's andasked about Kid Sister's album. He also gave me the new Roots album, it's dope. I remember hearing that Young Guru was a DJ and followed the old DMCbattles (that's Roc-A-Fella's in-house engineer, as seen in the Fade to Black movie). When I met himhe asked me about my Sunglasses Is A Must DVD right away. It's a trip because I meet these people mostly through my association with Kanye but I don'tnecessarily expect them to know about my background as a battle DJ. When we were doing all those battles with the Allies it's not like there were anycurrent rappers at those events. It was always Grandmaster Caz and the Arsonists, not like State Property or whoever.
In the midst of all this Kanye's been calling with random stream-of-consciousness stories, but also telling me about all the crazy (top secret) stuffhe's planning for the Glow In The Dark US leg. Let's just say, whatever happened in Europe stays in Europe. He's coming up with a whole new show. Ithink he's getting a kick out of me working with Jay. Because like I was explaining to my mom this morning, it's basically Jay-Z reaching out tohis DJ to bring something to his show. It's good for him too!
Anyway, I'm outta here tomorrow. Get ready for Winter Music!
- 903
- 10
- Joined
- Apr 20, 2005
Concert was NUTS!
I had so much fun...I'm from Orlando and I bought the Miami concert tix before they announced coming to Orlando, so I was mad at first, but I'm glad wewent to Miami instead, cuz I know damn well Jeezy, Kanye & Timbo won't be showin up.
We stayin at the Colony Hotel on Ocean Dr. ftw
Anyways The Dream opened up, was havin sex with his dancers on stage
Then after an intermission Jay & Mary had some litle intro video where they were describing the other person and what they mean to the game and stuff.
Then they came out and did Can't Knock the Hustle.
Jay went off, Mary performed for an hour and a half. I mean Mary's cool, but that was a long !*! time for me to sit through her performance.
Anyways, Hov came out, did maaad songs, he came out and did Say Hello's chorus, then stopped and did Roc Boys. He performed Blue Magic, Pray, and the IKnow. When he did I Know, at the end they dropped that Dey Know beat and jay was doin "I KNOW I KNOW I KNOW" to that beat and the Jeezy came out andspit his verse from the remix.
Then Jay performed mad other songs, Can I Live, Jigga My N' from vol. 3, and Jigga What, Can I Get A......and then he was doin the Diamonds remix versethen Kanye came out.
Kanye performed Can't Tell Me Nothing and Good Life, the crowd was nuts when he came out...the funniest part was Kanye laughed at 50. The last part of GoodLife Kanye goes "50 told me.......AAAAAHHHHHAHAHAHA!"
Then Timbo came out during Big Pimpin, really didn't do anything, had 1 of them yellow cookie monster alife tee's on and took a lil jab at Storch"Miami is my city"
Then he went over to the track list and started picking tracks for him to do, and would play like 10 seconds of a track and be like "F that!"andchange it, then they did Encore, he walked off like the show was done...then 5 minutes later people walkin out, I'm in my seat still and him and mary comeout and do Heart of the City w/ Mary on the hook.
Overall I had a great time in Miami, I'm still here, but its raining
I had so much fun...I'm from Orlando and I bought the Miami concert tix before they announced coming to Orlando, so I was mad at first, but I'm glad wewent to Miami instead, cuz I know damn well Jeezy, Kanye & Timbo won't be showin up.
We stayin at the Colony Hotel on Ocean Dr. ftw
Anyways The Dream opened up, was havin sex with his dancers on stage
Then after an intermission Jay & Mary had some litle intro video where they were describing the other person and what they mean to the game and stuff.
Then they came out and did Can't Knock the Hustle.
Jay went off, Mary performed for an hour and a half. I mean Mary's cool, but that was a long !*! time for me to sit through her performance.
Anyways, Hov came out, did maaad songs, he came out and did Say Hello's chorus, then stopped and did Roc Boys. He performed Blue Magic, Pray, and the IKnow. When he did I Know, at the end they dropped that Dey Know beat and jay was doin "I KNOW I KNOW I KNOW" to that beat and the Jeezy came out andspit his verse from the remix.
Then Jay performed mad other songs, Can I Live, Jigga My N' from vol. 3, and Jigga What, Can I Get A......and then he was doin the Diamonds remix versethen Kanye came out.
Kanye performed Can't Tell Me Nothing and Good Life, the crowd was nuts when he came out...the funniest part was Kanye laughed at 50. The last part of GoodLife Kanye goes "50 told me.......AAAAAHHHHHAHAHAHA!"
Then Timbo came out during Big Pimpin, really didn't do anything, had 1 of them yellow cookie monster alife tee's on and took a lil jab at Storch"Miami is my city"
Then he went over to the track list and started picking tracks for him to do, and would play like 10 seconds of a track and be like "F that!"andchange it, then they did Encore, he walked off like the show was done...then 5 minutes later people walkin out, I'm in my seat still and him and mary comeout and do Heart of the City w/ Mary on the hook.
Overall I had a great time in Miami, I'm still here, but its raining
- 903
- 10
- Joined
- Apr 20, 2005
Oh yea the George Bush thing was funny, on the part of Blue Magic where he goes "f' bush" he kept zoming in to bush's face on the monitor andkept sayin it
Then he said "u ready for a change?" and put O'Bama's face up, and everyone went nuts.
Then he said "u ready for a change?" and put O'Bama's face up, and everyone went nuts.
DYNAMICS
formerly diplomat tdot
- 28,534
- 3,683
- Joined
- Jun 26, 2002
SMH fans still for that early exit nonsense?
I'm just as much of a fan of MJB as Jay so I'll be just as hype for her set.
I'm just as much of a fan of MJB as Jay so I'll be just as hype for her set.
- 912
- 19
- Joined
- Sep 11, 2004
sounds dope. how long was Jay on for?
- 903
- 10
- Joined
- Apr 20, 2005
Bout hour and a half each
- 1,132
- 10
- Joined
- Feb 18, 2003
.
I was wondering the other day if Dream was doing any major tours,
then thought he might be on this one since he's Def Jam,
and he wrote half of Mary's album so it would make sense
sounds like a hot show
.
I was wondering the other day if Dream was doing any major tours,
then thought he might be on this one since he's Def Jam,
and he wrote half of Mary's album so it would make sense
sounds like a hot show
.
- 1,809
- 10
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2005
Sounds promising with Dream opening, and Mary performing before Jay.
Might get to the Toronto Show a lil late.
Might get to the Toronto Show a lil late.
- 6,600
- 47
- Joined
- Oct 1, 2006
It's called album promotion senor...
- 544
- 217
- Joined
- Jan 1, 2007
I seriously can't wait for the Boston show...I doubt Kanye will come out, but I'm seeing him in NY anyways...but those are all good tracks off AG andI'm glad he's doing alot of old stuff...only a week or so until the show
- 540
- 10
- Joined
- Nov 13, 2004
ill be at the show in Philly on the 30th
- 838
- 21
- Joined
- Aug 29, 2002
5/6 @ MSG
<>
<>
- 20,261
- 2,188
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2006
Jay-Z and Mary J. Blige kicked off their anticipated "Heart of the City" tour at the American Airlines Arena in Miami on Saturday night. Many celebscame out and even performed on stage during the concert. Guest included: Kanye West, The Dream (he opened up for them), Timbaland and more.
( as always, click or hover over pics for more info )
DYNAMICS
formerly diplomat tdot
- 28,534
- 3,683
- Joined
- Jun 26, 2002
He got his sales, this isn't November.
I didn't expect him to do as many tracks from that album.
- 903
- 10
- Joined
- Apr 20, 2005
damn, Fab was back there...shoulda came out
- 482
- 10
- Joined
- Dec 4, 2003
thats crazy that Fab didn't come out and The Dream performed!
- 482
- 10
- Joined
- Dec 4, 2003
thats crazy that Fab didn't come out and The Dream performed!
- 1,428
- 496
- Joined
- Jan 6, 2007
Can't wait for New Orleans
DYNAMICS
formerly diplomat tdot
- 28,534
- 3,683
- Joined
- Jun 26, 2002
Dream didn't bring Fab out? or Jay for "Brooklyn"?
edit: Sik I know your @ the Orlando show tonight I better see an update.
edit: Sik I know your @ the Orlando show tonight I better see an update.
- 903
- 10
- Joined
- Apr 20, 2005
He gonna bring out Smilez & Southstar as a special Orlando guest
- 6,600
- 47
- Joined
- Oct 1, 2006
it doesn't matter...any artist touring will have a setlist consisting of the majority of their last album.....i don't know of ONE artist thathasn't done that
- 6,600
- 47
- Joined
- Oct 1, 2006
and is that jacket the one kanye wore for the Gold Digger performance at the Grammy's??? I know i've seen it somewhere...
- 8,616
- 1,461
- Joined
- Dec 25, 2005
- 903
- 10
- Joined
- Apr 20, 2005
idk...i think it was worth it...trust me...we had to sit through a long Mary set, but Hov played a lot of songs off all his albums and plus you would be gointo MSG, which you know would be something special..