On a cool Sunday night the stars aligned for easily one of the most talked about and most hyped tours of the year. Two legends sharing the stage for 12 shows and Hershey, Pennsylvania, Chocolate Town USA got a chance to see greatness.
Show time was set for 8:00 PM but that was just to warm up the crowd from the opening act DJ spinning genres playing classic tracks from the likes of Earth Wind & Fire to Kanye West to Skrillex.
By the time 9:00 PM came around, the lights dimmed low and a fantastic LED stage setup glowed white with images of renaissance-esque marble statues similar to the cover of Jay-Z’s newest magnum opus Magna Carter Holy Grail. And with the band coming out the 30,000 people were up on their feet buzzing for the legends to appear. Cue Holy Grail and Justin Timberlake’s crooning to start the 2 and a half hour show.
Jay-Z was rocking a Don C Brooklyn Nets strapback and a simple white shirt buttoned to the neck with his usual layered gold rope chains and Roc-A-Fella pendant. JT wore a fedora and a designer short sleeved shirt with black tipped white dress shoes. They proceed to go back and forth with hits after hits with Justin even singing Jackson 5’s I Want You Back to transition into Izzo (H.O.V.A.). Big Pimpin’ drops and everyone is going insane bopping left and right only for Justin to smooth it out right after with Tunnel Vision.
Jay gets his solo set next running through 6 tracks in typical Hov fashion, peaking with U Don’t Know to have the crowd in a frenzy. Things die down a bit with Justin singing the chorus to Heart of the City transitioning into his solo set moving into Pusher Lover Girl. With every single middle aged woman in the stands fiending for JT, he goes into some FutureSexLoveSongs/Justified tracks only to lead into his brand new single Take Back the Night with the excellent band and horns leading the way.
With the crowd dancing all over the place, Jay-Z comes back out to pronounce all the female pimps with Dirt Off Your Shoulder, leading into pure madness when Paris comes on. Jay then asks to play some new material has everyone clapping to Tom Ford.
After the fans calm done a bit, Justin attempts to get his Frank Sinatra on by introing New York New York leading into still one of the fan favorites Empire State Of Mind. Mirrors was up next with everyone singing at the top of their lungs to the love ballad. The duo finishes up with more hits in Encore and SexyBack leaving everyone wanting more only to have them come back out after a quick wardrobe change brandishing some champagne flutes to toast to Suit & Tie. The end of the night was capped with Young Forever and a tribute to the late Trayvon Martin.
At the end of the day, Jay-Z and Justin Timberlake are some of/if not the best performers in the music business and they proved that point with a fantastic 37 song effort. The way they meshed R&B and hip hop together with a great live band and amazing visual effects. Overall, I feel Jay-Z really had the crowd going with more energy but Justin held his own melting hearts of every single woman in the stadium. In the end it just only goes to show that this will be one to be remembered for ages.
Setlist:
Holy Grail
Rock Your Body
I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me)
I Want You Back
Izzo (H.O.V.A.)
Excuse Me Miss
Señorita
On to the Next One (D.A.N.C.E. Intro)
Like I Love You
My Love
Big Pimpin’
Tunnel Vision
Jigga What, Jigga Who
U Don’t Know
99 Problems
Clique
Public Service Announcement
Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)
Heart of the City (Ain’t No Love)
Pusher Love Girl
LoveStoned
Summer Love
Until the End of Time
Cry Me a River
Take Back the Night
What Goes Around… Comes Around
Dirt Off Your Shoulder
Niggas in Paris
Tom Ford
New York New York
Empire State of Mind
Mirrors
Run This Town
Encore
SexyBack
Encore:
Suit & Tie
Young Forever
