There aren’t many worlds Jay-Z hasn’t conquered or come out on top of: sneaker sales, multiplatinum albums, successful clothing lines and record labels, liquor deals and launching superstar protégés (see: Rihanna). But everyone is a bit insecure about something, and according to Jigga, he’s got a complex about his early live performances.
Specifically, he told the Los Angeles Times that when he first broke out in 1996, his stage skills were less than stellar.
“All my early years? Forget it. I was a horrible performer,” said Jay, who copped to realizing just how bad he was during a co-headlining tour with DMX in 1998. “DMX tore me to pieces. I remember being stunned.”
Calling on the same competitive drive to succeed that helped make him a worldwide superstar a short time later, Jay decided to focus on the unique aspects that would better connect with the audience, and he started rapping a cappella to show off his skills and running through the crowd while rapping in an effort to show up X.
“He had me really working,” he said of DMX, whose career has since taken a precipitous nosedive. “But I had to figure this out. If you want to be a headliner, you better put on a headline show.”
Over the years, that confidence has been augmented by a 10-piece backing band that helps Jay flesh out his material not just for his sold-out arena gigs, but also for crowds of tens of thousands at festivals, such as the upcoming Coachella, which he will headline next weekend as the first-ever straight-up rapper to top the bill.
The gig is a sequel of sorts to Jay’s first major non-hip-hop-related festival headlining gig, a controversial 2008 slot at Britain’s mostly rock Glastonbury Festival. When that gig was announced, former Oasis leader Noel Gallagher dissed the choice, griping, “I’m sorry, but Jay-Z? No chance.”
That dis led to a brilliant line in “Jockin’ Jay-Z” (”That bloke from Oasis said I couldn’t play guitar/ Somebody should have told him I’m a f—in’ rock star”), as well as Jay’s feeling that a line had been drawn in the sand. “That was the old guard standing in the way, saying, ‘This is rock music. This is sacred,’ ” he said. “It was one of those hurdles we had to break down.”
By winning over the crowd, Jay not only proved Gallagher wrong, but helped cement his status as an international draw, one that has led to his booking at this summer’s Bonnaroo Festival, the Summer Sonic Festival in Japan and Germany’s Rock Am Ring.
“In hip-hop, there’s not many great performers,” Jigga said. “I look outside the genre, measuring myself against others. I look at Madonna’s production and envy that. Daft Punk’s set, I’m like, what the … . And I look at the way U2 can command an audience. Bono’s a performer pretty much like I am. He’s not a dancer; he’s not jumping around. He’s having a conversation. He’s using his stillness as movement.”
Along the way, he said he’s also learned the crucial difference between one of his solo arena shows and a slot at a major festival packed with plenty of other world-class artists. “At festivals, some people are there to see you, some people are there to see the act before you, some people have no idea who you are,” he said. “So how do you take that audience of all those different people and make them focus on one point? That’s the challenge.”
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