Jay-Z brought out some very special guests indeed at the second night of his Yankee Stadium run.
It’s a milestone year for Jay-Z, with his iconic debut album, Reasonable Doubt, turning 30 on June 25th. His sixth album, The Blueprint, is also set to celebrate its landmark 25th anniversary on September 11th.
To celebrate, he’s performing three shows at New York City’s Yankee Stadium this weekend, with Roc Nation adding a third date due to overwhelming demand.
In the middle night, Eminem joined Jay-Z onstage to perform “Renegade”, the penultimate track from The Blueprint. Their duet marked the first time the pair had played the track live together since 2010. Eminem wasn’t done there, sticking around to perform his own classic song “Lose Yourself”.
Bronx-raised rapper Slick Rick also made an appearance on night two, helping Jay-Z open the show with a take on his “La Di Da Di”. During the encore, Pharrell Williams stopped by for “Excuse Me Miss”, “Allure”, as well as Pharrell’s own “Frontin'”.
The trio of surprise guests followed appearances from Beyoncé, Nas, Blue Ivy, Memphis Bleek, and more during opening night, which celebrated Reasonable Doubt; night two focused on The Blueprint.
Jay-Z’s final night at Yankee Stadium, meanwhile, will celebrate hits from throughout his extensive back catalogue.
His anniversary tour next heads to London and Paris in September before returning to the US for an October 23rd show at Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium.
The Yankee Stadium run follows Jay-Z’s memorable performance at Philadelphia’s Roots Picnic, which he headlined back in May.
He turned his Roots Picnic set into a mini Roc-A-Fella Records reunion, bringing out the likes of Beanie Sigel, Freeway, Young Chris, and other former collaborators to perform classic cuts from their respective catalogues.
What really made headlines around the world, though, was Jay-Z’s freestyle diss, in which he responded to previous jabs from multiple alleged targets, including big names like Drake, Kanye West, and Nicki Minaj.
