Skip to Content
News

Jay-Z Wraps Up Yankee Stadium Run With Rihanna, Beyoncé, Four-Hour Delay

This past weekend, Jay-Z returned to the stage for three massive hometown headlining shows at Yankee Stadium. The first night celebrated the 30th anniversary of his landmark debut Reasonable Doubt, and it included guests like Beyoncé, Nas, and Jay's old mentor Jaz-O, finally squashing a long beef between those two. The second night commemorated the 25th anniversary of Jay's classic The Blueprint, and it had guests like Slick Rick, Eminem, and Pharrell. Last night, Jay finished out the trilogy. The third "extra innings" show wasn't tied to any particular album anniversary, and it included a fair amount of vintage New York chaos.

ABC7 reports that Jay-Z's Sunday night show started after a four-hour delay — not for rain but because a huge group of fans crashed through the security gate, leading to a stadium lockdown. For a long time, fans weren't allowed in or out of the venue. Gates initially opened at 8 p.m., and they didn't reopen until two hours later. It looks pretty miserable!

Jay finally came to the stage around 12:15 a.m. When the show started, Jay told the crowd, "It was like 10,000 people outside, and they closed all the doors because somebody rushed the door," explaining that the delay was for safety reasons. Jay still played a massive 44-song set full of famous guest stars, so that must've been a late night for everyone. The big headline from last night was probably a rare appearance from Rihanna, who Jay signed to Def Jam when she was a teenager. She came out to perform "Run This Town" with Jay and to sing "Bitch Better Have That Money."

After appearing and cutting Jay's hair during the first Yankee Stadium show, Beyoncé made another appearance with her husband to perform "Drunk In Love," "Tom Ford," and "Partition."

There were tons of other guests, too. Teyana Taylor sang the Mary J. Blige hook from "Can't Knock The Hustle." Jay and Jermaine Dupri did "Money Ain't A Thing" together. Jeezy came out for "Seen It All" and "Go Crazy." Usher sang the hook from the Blueprint classic "Heart Of The City (Ain't No Love)" and performed his own song "Throwback."

Jay did a few of his Watch The Throne tracks without Kanye West, and The-Dream joined him for "No Church In The Wild." Fat Joe and Jadakiss, two artists who once had mini-feuds with Jay, came out to do their verses from Ja Rule's "New York," a hometown pride anthem that got a big boost during the Knicks' recent championship run. Swizz Beatz came to the stage for a salute to Jay's late peer and tourmate DMX.

After appearing during the second show, Pharrell came out for a whole mini-set that included Clipse doing "Grindin'." He also gave a whole speech about how Jay had cut his hair and how he's "about to go to war."

GET THE STEREOGUM DIGEST

The week's most important music stories and least important music memes.