Jay Z concert review 2014

My husband and I got to see Jay Z in Detroit at the Palace of Auburn Hills. It was an excellent show. I was raised in Detroit, and attended Detroit Public Schools until the age of 14, so I enjoy a lot of rap and hip hop. I am sharing some info about the Jay Z concert because I was looking online to find this info, because we were running late and did not get to the show until 8:20. We figured things would run late, but you can't help but worry you might miss something.

Some might be wondering what time does Jay Z come onstage? Who is the opening act for Jay Z? The tickets say the show starts at 8:00, but Jay Z didn't come onstage until 9:45. There was not an opening act, but a DJ played from 8:00-9:45. Jay Z was scheduled to come onstage at 9:00, but it was actually 9:45 when he came out. Some cities did have opening acts, but most just had a DJ playing until Jay Z appeared.

What songs were played? All the ones you'd want to hear, there were no disappointments. Jay Z's set list included: Crown, Holy Grail, 99 problems, Big Pimpin', Niggas in Paris, Dirt off your shoulder. A special treat was when he performed "No Church in the wild", and "F with me you know I got it". This isn't his song, but I was so happy to hear it! And he performed the whole song, and did Kanye's parts too for "No Church in the wild" and "Niggas in Paris". After he performed for over an hour, Timbaland came out and performed some snippets of his songs. He beat boxed a bit and played a piano and performed a new song. He was very entertaining too. After Jay Z had that break, he came out to do an Encore consisting of several songs. The Jay Z encore was:  Encore (his version not the Linkin Park one), Empire State of Mind, (H to the Izzo) Izzo H.O.V.A, Hard Knock Life, and my favorite of the night, Young Forever.

His crowd was more of a mixed bag. He had a wide range of ages, from teenagers and a few young kids, to some people in their sixties, maybe even seventies. It was an overall older crowd, more middle-aged people. I noticed this because some artists draw only a young crowd, if they are newer, while others draw all ages. Jay Z definitely appealed to everyone, and this could be seen in the audience.

Jay Z called out several people in the audience that were wearing his merchandise, and they were put on camera. Also, if they were wearing crazy sparkly dresses and what not. He told security to "stand down" several times when they tried to escort people out of the aisles that he was talking to and had on camera. It seemed like they didn't appreciate his barking at them, as he noted he just wanted everyone to have a good time.

The performance was amazing and was not disappointing in the least. He is a very strong performer, and rapped out all the lyrics, there was no lip syncing. We were curious to see if any other local performers would stop by the show, but they did not. It was totally fine though, the show was awesome as it was.

Finally, Jay Z told the whole crowd he appreciated everything everyone had to do to get there that night. He said " I know a lot of you had to get a babysitter, put gas in your car to get here, buy the tickets... and I appreciate that". I'm sure it made everyone feel good, and was nice to hear a thank you from him, that he really appreciated all his fans. I definitely have a newfound respect for him after hearing those words.