Hov elevated out from under the stage; blacked out Jordans, black pants, black T, black leather jacket, black sunglasses, two Jesus-pieces, and a Jason Halloween mask. He tossed off the mask to show a more confident face. Run This Town blasted around him. One couldn’t help but be enveloped by his expression. It read: “I am the best thing that I could have imagined being. I came up from cocaine-dealing in Brooklyn to selling out shows around the world. Thousands of people get together to see me recite my verses on stage. I am great.” It was convincing.

I couldn’t help but ponder Kanye’s skewed reality on life after getting a glimpse of Jay-Z. They really are the greats of their time. The proof: Blueprint 3 just became Jay’s 11th number one album. He just exceeded Elvis’ record for number one albums. History has been made and Hov is well aware of this.

He commanded the stage extremely well. One man holding it down for thousands. The only pauses during the show came when Hov felt the crowd wasn’t doing justice to a certain track. “Stop the track! How you gonna do that to Big Pimpin? Big Pimpin is a cultural phenomenon!”

Jay is an entertainer without the circus apparatus in his show. He did have a few exceptional guests on the line up. J Cole opened the show, followed by an energy infused Wale and then a hard set from N.E.R.D. Pharrell seemed to run a more punk than hip-hop set ripping through tracks while hopping and jump kicking. He let girls come up on stage and danced with each of them while spitting verses to Everyone Nose, Beautiful, Drop it Like It’s Hot and Soldier. It was to the chagrin of an overweight girl when her chance to dance was in sync with Pharrell reciting, “It’s clear as black and white, like a fat panda…”

During Jay’s set he had a few guest appearances. Memphis Bleek came out as Hov’s hype man for most of the show. Pharrell came out to do up So Ambitious with speeches about not being held down by haters and living dreams. The best guest appearance of the show was Toronto’s own, Drake (video posted below). He came out and instead of hyping Hov, he was given the stage and did up Successful. He did this while repping a (Canadian) Wings + Horns varsity jacket and held it down for the city. It was special.

Overall, an exceptional show. A few characters on stage worth emulating and a few reminders to live the dream. In the end, everybody has the potential to be on stage, whatever your stage might be.

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DOWNLOAD: Drake – Successful (feat. Trey Songz & Lil’ Wayne)