Inside Jay-Z's Yankee Stadium Takeover: Everything That Went Down

“The album that did 43,000 in its first week now put 45,000 in the seats…culture always wins.”

Of course those are among the first words we hear from Jay-Z on opening night of his three-day stint of Yankee Stadium shows. For all the ways that Jay-Z compares to Michael Jordan—technical greatness, dominance, productivity, ruthlessness with opponents—what makes the two most alike is that neither forgets a slight.

So as Jay honored 30 years of his debut, Reasonable Doubt, he couldn't help but remind the audience—once again!—that the world slept at first. But it's OK, we all caught up now.

The first night, Friday, July 10, was a beautiful, at times emotional, family-driven ode to the album that started it all. The second night, July 11, was a more efficient, surgical performance showing love to his classic sixth studio album, The Blueprint. Night Three, titled "Extra Innings," on July 12, was a test of endurance. The show was delayed for three hours, with the rapper not hitting the stage until after midnight and the show wrapping up in the early morning hours.

All three nights, Jay was backed by a 10-person band and a string section, according to Wired. He was in front of a massive screen showing various collages, some personal, others abstract. These shows are just the beginning—there are additional ones to look forward to, with Jay performing in Paris, Los Angeles, and London later this year.

Here is everything that happened during Jay-Z’s three night Yankee Stadium takeover.

Going into the weekend, there was the most intrigue around the final show of the trilogy, since it wasn't framed around an album or anniversary. So it's somewhat poetic that that would be the night that had the most chaos.

Here’s everything that went down for day three, “Extra Innings.”

Before the concert started, Yankee officials were urging fans to arrive early for the show. It ended up being wise, because this concert will be remembered first for the massive delays but then for how Jay responded—basically a Hov and Friends show on steroids.

Let’s start with the delays. Jay was supposed to hit the stage around 9 PM; he didn’t come out until after midnight. After the show, Live Nation, Roc Nation, and the Yankees released a joint statement explaining the hold up:

"On Sunday evening at various fan entrances at Yankee Stadium, hundreds of individuals in large groups—who did not have tickets to tonight's performance—stormed over peaceful ticketholders, and in some cases, breached security. As a result, gates at all entrances of the Stadium were closed for an extended period of time."

Now, to the performance. A midnight start seemed to put the battery in Jay’s back. The show was massive in scale, with the rapper doing 44 songs—almost doubling his output from The Blueprint night.

The crowd did not seem too restless—there weren't a lot of chants or booing, which can happen in these situations—and by the time the music started, most people seemed to have forgotten about the delay.

Even at 3 AM—with the crowd sweaty and hot, having waited around for hours—most people in attendance were still locked in.

Going into the show there was a ton of debate about what Jay would do: would this be a greatest-hits show, or something more B-sides oriented?

Turns out it was a mix of both. Of course there were all the classics you want to hear at a Jay show, from "Empire State of Mind," to "U Don't Know," to "N***as in Paris". But there were some truly electric deep-cut moments.

Coming out to the Dynasty intro is goosebump-inducing. So is seeing him do his verse on "Go Crazy" with Jeezy by his side. Or going full acappella on "Dear Summer." Even some of the guests brought this B-side energy. Usher came out and, instead of doing something like "Yeah!," he performed "Throwback."

While there was a clear logic to the first two shows—he's going to do his two undisputed classics in chronological order—I couldn't really track a narrative throughline through this performance other than “Jay has been dominating shit for a long time.”

He would hop from era to era, album to album, in a very loose, jam session type of way. At one point he pulled off a three-song stretch that went something like: "Nigga What, Nigga Who (Originator '99)," "No Church in the Wild" with The-Dream, and "Clique." Ultimately movies like this made for the most unpredictable night of the three.

For the second night in a row, Pharrell came out. They basically did the same set from evening two. But what made this one interesting is that he all but announced Jay has a new album cooking—and that it might be very confrontational. Before leaving the stage, Pharrell said:

"Y’all know him to be the giant that I know him to be. They poked the bear, and then the bear cut his hair, and now he got on his helmet. He got on his helmet and he gettin’ ready to go to work. I hope you kill all them niggas. Y’all know what I'm talking about.”

Jay-Z famously recorded the bulk of The Blueprint in a furious two days, holed up in Baseline alongside young up-and-coming producers at the time, Just Blaze and Kanye West. The album is easily up there with Jay's classic debut, and it's no surprise both albums earned their own night at Yankee Stadium.

Here's everything that went down during Day 2, honoring The Blueprint.

"I dropped the same date as the Twin Towers," Jay-Z famously rapped just three days after 9/11.

Part of the lore around Blueprint—maybe Jay's most triumphant moment as a rapper—is the fact that it was released on the same day as New York's most tragic moment.

So of course Jay found ways to honor the moment. One, the show started right at 9:11 EST, a subtle touch. (By comparison, Day One started around 9:25.) But Jay also gave a speech acknowledging the date and declaring the performance as dedication to those lost.

He started with "The Ruler's Back," a record paying homage to The Great Adventures of Slick Rick’s second track. Right after, Slick Rick himself came out wearing the most ridiculous gigantic diamond chain I've ever seen and did a rendition of "La Di Da Di."

What's funny is that Slick Rick is actually on Blueprint—he does the hook on "Girls, Girls, Girls”—but this was the only appearance he made this evening.

The big question going into night two: how would Jay handle "Takeover," one of the best songs on The Blueprint but one that features brutal disses aimed at Nas (who came out during Day One) and Prodigy (who died in 2017)? Turns out there was no space for the song at all. With the exception of the instrumental being played briefly at the beginning, and during Eminem's rendition of "Lose Yourself," Jay completely ignored "Takeover."

There's a world where he could have done a new freestyle over the beat (or redone the Roots Picnic one). Or maybe he could have saved the Nas appearance for Day Two and turned the song into a unifying moment. But Jay just deleted the track from the ether.

There is only one official guest feature on The Blueprint—Eminem. So the chances he would pull up were always high. The crowd lost their minds when Em came out, hooded up, wearing a Kool G Rap Road to the Riches shirt.

Where Jay's link-up with Nas was more communal—the two sharing the stage, going back and forth with various songs—Jay cleared out and let Em cook. He performed the all time classic stadium mover "Lose Yourself"; of course the crowd was losing their shit.

For all of Blueprint's greatness, two songs stick out like sore thumbs: the Trackmasters-produced "Jigga That Nigga" and Timbaland's "Hola' Hovito"—not terrible songs, but kind of corny tracks with a more trendy, of-that-era sounds that ages them compared to the timeless production across the rest of the album.

And yet the crowd was locked in for both—there's a good chance Jay never performs these songs again. But it was definitely surreal to hear thousands of fans yell out "Hola’ Hovito."

After closing out The Blueprint, Jay did the encore theatrics and came back to the stage to perform "Empire State of Mind" (no Alicia this time, but a cool moment where he rapped over the "Welcome to New York City" beat).

Pharrell came out and the two did a medley of classics from over the years, similar to what they did at Something in the Water in 2019. On one hand it was all you could want—nostalgic, fun, joyous chemistry between two guys who clearly still have it. But there's something bittersweet knowing there won't be a moment like this with Ye anytime soon.

Maybe it's the music, maybe it's the era it came out in, but the crowd for Blueprint night was definitely more engaged than Reasonable Doubt night's crowd (it should be noted: Blueprint was easily the most in-demand ticket of the three nights).

And yet the performance itself wasn't as strong as Night One. Night Two felt more obligatory—at times it felt like Jay was speeding through the tracklist, compared to Night One's more simmering energy, where he did more tricks blending songs from different eras. There wasn't as much banter, and no freestyles. The show ran about an hour, with an additional 25 minutes or so of encore, meaning it was over before 11 PM EST.

For day one, I had prime seating on the floor, thanks to D'USSÉ, which had its own gated section for journalists and influencers. The proximity let me watch a master at work up close, cool and collected, commanding one of the city's most iconic venues.

This was Jay's first solo headlining performance in New York in more than seven years and it was a hell of a way to come back.

Here's everything that happened at Jay-Z's Yankee Stadium concert.

As Jay is one to do, the show started with a statement: a video collage on the big screen of Beyoncé cutting his hair. This felt like the clearest sign yet that a new Jay-Z album is on the way. If you remember, in the GQ interview from March, Jay mentioned that he was recording new music and it was too angry to put out. But this video suggests he's ready. (If you don’t know, the lore is that Jay grows his hair out while recording and shaves it when the album he’s working on is done.)

For the concert, Jay never took the Yankee fitted off (a cut right after braids isn't always flattering). It is interesting how much Jay is using his hair and its evolution—from locs to an afro to what we're assuming is a caesar—to tell his story.

Complex Senior Editorial Content Producer Jordan made a wager that he would shave his head if we didn't get a new Hov album. That bet is looking pretty safe right now.

This Reasonable Doubt show, in a lot of ways, was similar. But the biggest difference is that this was 20 years later. Old age has softened Hov up, and it's shown in how oddly emotional this performance was.

This time Jay did it in chronological order, starting with "Can't Knock the Hustle," which was again performed with Beyoncé. The family dynamic was strong. For "Feelin' It," Blue Ivy appeared—we not only got to see her playing Ski's iconic beat, but also saw the video of her learning how to play it. And later, Jay gave a shout-out to his mother, who was in the crowd, and he almost broke during the moment.

That same sentimentality was seen in the way Jay not only honored his catalogue but his peers: there was no Sauce Money this time but Jay brought out Jaz-O, who did his tongue-twisting verse on "Bring It On." During that performance Jay made sure to stop the music and give him his flowers—Drink Champs style.

They exchanged catalogue classics, with Jay going from rapping over "Dead Presidents" to Nas performing "The World Is Yours," to Jay doing "Where I'm From," back to Nas topping it off with "N.Y. State of Mind."

Throughout it all, the two were finishing each other's sentences, really showing the respect they have for each other's catalogues. Really one of the coolest rap moments in recent memory.

There is no one that can fill Biggie's shoes.

So when it came to their iconic duet, "Brooklyn's Finest," Jay, probably smartly, didn't opt for another rapper—like Lil Kim or even Biggie's son—he just did it by himself.

Jay started the show by declaring "We're performing Reasonable Doubt," an indicator that this is for the day one fans. But performing Reasonable Doubt straight through—an album that is dense in lyrics, featuring an understated jazzy sound that doesn't connote stadium music—in front of that crowd has its challenges. Which is maybe why almost every song featured some sort of transition or mashup of another classic, more commercially successful song. If anything, these songs communicate how Jay sees these songs in communication with each other; like, I never thought about it before but "D'Evils" and "No Church in the Wild" are siblings. Or that there is some connection sonically or thematically between "Cashmere Thoughts" and "Allure," and "Can I Live" and "Jigga My Nigga."

Because the set stuck so closely to Reasonable Doubt, you saw some of the flaws in the pacing in the album. RD is a stone-cold classic, but the first half dwarfs the second half quite significantly. And you could feel some of the audience's attention start to wander during some of the deeper RD cuts, including "Regrets," which is an amazing song.

Jay as a performer, of course, is a plus. There were some sound issues at points, but he is a masterful performer, extremely comfortable and playful on stage, comically taunting and bantering and never really showing the breath control issues that plague his peers.

So what was the best? After going to all three, here's the definitive ranking:

Night One — best
Night Three — second best
Night Two — last

If Night Three hadn't had the chaotic wait and sound issues, it would've won on pure energy from the crowd and star power. But Reasonable Doubt is where it all landed—where Jay felt the most emotionally invested, where the band pushed itself creatively instead of leaning on spectacle. Night Two was solid, but the weakest of the three: a proficient, polished run-through of Blueprint and a couple other songs.