Videos

June 30, 2008

Jay-Z - "Wonderwall" (live at Glastonbury)

TDS Editors

Times UK:

In the event, Jay-Z at Glastonbury 2008 proved to be the most thrilling headline act for more than a decade. We should have known that the artist, who retired briefly from making music in 2003 because there was nothing new left to achieve, would relish this sort of challenge.

A video montage chronicling the furore that had led up to this most controversial of bookings began with Noel Gallagher piously proclaiming: “Sorry, but Jay-Z, I’m not f***ing having him at Glastonbury.” Then came Jay-Z, contemptuously miming Wonderwall while strumming a guitar. Finally, an explosion of hip-hop beats heralded 99 Problems. With his biggest hit behind him, he declared: “My name is Jay-Z and I’m pretty f***ing awesome.” He made light work of proving it with the elastic funk of I Know What Girls Like.

Flanked by a live band, Jay-Z expanded Blue Magic to include a verse about the Bush Administration’s reaction to Hurricane Katrina. The “f*** Bush” line elicited a seismic cheer, as did the image of Barack Obama that followed. For a second you could have sworn that the world had changed a little bit, just like it did after Bob Dylan went electric at Newport in 1965. Yes, it was really that thrilling.


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9 Comments

#1 Ryan says:

Wow. Somebody needs to tell Jay to stick rapping and not sing. Ouch!

#2 Steven Patrick Morrissey says:

it was done tongue-in-cheek. good to see people missed that.

noel gallagher might want to check the crowd reaction and see if they agree jay-z has no place at glastonbury.

signed

lifelong oasis fan.

#3 yeah says:

I'm actually a big Jay-Z fan, but this is just some typical pandering on Jay's part. Why not perform your music straight up?. I wonder if this set would have sounded anything like this had Gallagher not criticized him.

I guess even Jay had doubts about it.

#4 the dude says:

awesome. more bad singing from a rapper. let's see how noel gallagher reacts. other than that, jay-z should not be a super cliche and try to gangster noel AND dis bush AND show an obama...is there no originality anymore...AND have beyonce smiling at his side...yikes

#5 Steven Patrick Morrissey says:

considering jay-z has been touring with a live band the last six years, i don't see what the problem is.

amazing how people can't tell he's taking the piss here.

#6 frank says:

yea, I think the critical postings are missing the point of what Jay-Z did here . . . you might recall that Noel Gallagher was very critical of Jay Z's headline slot at Glastonbury. So for Jay-Z to hit the stage miming Wonderwall and then launch into "I got 99 Problem and a Bitch (aka Noel Gallagher) Ain't One" was actually . . . surprisingly . . . pretty fucking brilliant!

#7 Jordan Catalano says:

Jay-Z effing PWNED Noel G at Glasto with that intro. Thanks to Frank for pointing out how he went from that into "99 Problems." And if any of you haters actually watch the entire show, you'll see that he rocked the PACKED field HARD the way only Hova can.

And best of all, his most recent songs were as well received as the old ones. Let's see Oasis say that about ANY gig they play ANYWHERE.

And that's a wrap!

#8 yay for jay-z says:

how at all was Jay cliche? he tailored his performance really well to glastonbury - umbrella, american boy, rehab, is that yo bitch, etc, plus he cut up alot of songs so he could fit a bunch in one set. and his performance of minority report was awesome!

#9 Will says:

I wasn't excpecting much from Jay-z's performance, particularly it being Glasto, but with the pre-gig montage and to launch into Wonderwall then 99 Problems (in agreement with 'Frank'), coupled with the hype and intrigue made it one of THE Glastonbury performances. It created an interesting debate about why we shouldn't pigeon-hole ourselves musically (if you looked at the crowd that night a lot of people were there to see what would happen, and a true showman rocked it). This has surely done more for the festival than the Eavis' can possibly have imagined??
What with the weather, Glastobury is truly alive!


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