SimplyAbuDhabi XII

7 1 S I M P LY A B U DH A B I the stage like a powerful feline assassin, Jay Z continued to enthral the crowd, tearing through tracks such as the recent ‘HolyGrail’, the global smash and crowd pleaser ‘99 Problems’ and the Eastern inflected hit ‘Beware’, with Panjabi MC. Jay Z was dressed for business, clad in black from head to toe, rocking a black and gold chunky Hublot watch, a black sports top, cap and a thick gold chain. The crowd were loud in their applause and Jay Z often spoke to his fans, asking. “You guys ready to take this up another level?” Around midway through the show the level went a bit too high, half way through a scorching version of ‘Tom Ford’ the music stopped. Jay Z shrugged his shoulders and walked off stage… for a short while nobody knew what was going on. Behind the record decks Timbaland entertained the crowd in their confusion, playing some of his own hits and classics such as Missy Elliot’s ‘Get Your Freak On’. After around ten minutes Jay Z came back on stage to huge applause. It turned out that a generator had blown. Not letting this minor blip affect the atmosphere, Jay Z got staright back into the groove with an array of favourites cherry-picked from his 15 albums, with tracks like ‘Dirt of Your Shoulder’, ‘Public Service Announcement’ and ‘Big Pimpin'’ making the grade. The audience roared with approval as Hov (one of Jay Z’s many nicknames) moved onto ‘Run This Town’ – the huge hit that featured Rihanna and Kanye West. Although these collaborators weren’t present for their respective parts in the song, Jay Z still delivered and the applause was deafening as he left the stage. Of course he had to come back for an encore and the night was rounded off with yet more big hitting classics such as ‘Hard Knock Life’ and ‘Izzo’. The final number went to ‘Empire State of Mind’ for which Jay Z announced “Since you welcomed me to your hometown, I'd like to tell you something about my hometown”. Unsurprisingly it raised the roof and proved a fitting end for the night. The mixed crowd of petrol head F1 fans and dedicated music goers were all beaming and aware they’d seen something special – the world’s number one rapper showing how it’s done.