An evening at MSG

Two concert tickets: $300

Dinner consisting of dorm food with one of your closest friends: $10

One concert T-shirt to be shared with your brother: $30

An evening spent at MSG watching your younger brother awkwardly “dance” to the sounds of one of the greatest rappers alive while simultaneously getting showered by alcohol and enveloped in a cloud of smoke: Priceless

Two weeks ago my brother and I made our way to New York City to see Jay-Z in concert. To prepare for the blessed event I listened to the “Blueprint 3” album non-stop for two weeks and taught my brother how to properly shake his romper to the beat (unfortunately this proved to be a useless endeavor). This was going to be my first concert ever (Live Earth doesn’t count!) and I couldn’t wait. Luckily for me the expectations were for once far exceeded.

Not only was Jay-Z live was almost as good as the recorded tracks, the various surprise guests really made the evening special. After Jay’s first set Young Jeezy came out along with NICKI MINAJ, DRAKE, AKON, and Lil Wayne (who somehow managed to stall his jail sentence just long enough tot perform at MSG!). Though I wasn’t able to stay for the whole concert (overbearing parents… what can you do?!), the highlight for the entire evening had to be Jay-Z’s performance  of Empire State of Mind- the entire arena was literally rapping/singing along with him word for word (A close second would be when President Obama’s “dirt off your shoulder speech” appeared on the large screens on the stage)!

Although Jay’ part of the concert was great, the opening act Trey Songz left a lot to be desired. Every song was literally the same (all were some variation on the themes of women, sex, and more sex) and his act dragged on for almost an hour! It was so bad that I found people watching more appealing than listening to him. However, Jay-Z definitely lived up to the hype as he performed all of his new and old hits. I definitely came away from that concert with a sense that he truly is “the best rapper alive” and I recommmend that you all check him out on his BP3 tour.