You may have heard Jay-Z chose himself to headline the Super Bowl Halftime Show. Though we're still awaiting official word from the NFL, it's all but confirmed, and it will represent the culmination of a year-long victory-lap campaign celebrating his own legacy. Jigga's been spending this year performing a handful of shows in massive venues, intentionally surveying the full scope of his career. He warmed up by headlining Philadelphia's Roots Picnic in May, then played three huge summer shows at Yankee Stadium — one devoted to the 30th anniversary of debut album Reasonable Doubt, one celebrating 25 years of The Blueprint, and one catchall greatest hits night.
He's since done two shows in London and one in Paris, and the festivities moved on to LA for two JAŸ-Z 30 gigs at Inglewood's SoFi Stadium over the weekend. At Friday's show, he brought out his daughter Blue Ivy for two songs, Scarface for two songs, and DJ Khaled and John Legend for the show-closing "GOD DID." On Saturday, the star power went up to a different wattage, as Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre took the stage for a five-song mid-show medley. These are all filthy rich old men now, but all these years later, associates of 2Pac and Biggie joining forces like that still feels borderline unbelievable.
In the lead-up to the SoFi shows, screenshots circulating on social media indicated there were plenty of seats available, and Ticketmaster/Live Nation was moving them for prices ranging from cheap to free. The alleged ticket situation was fuel for the skeptics who believe Jay isn't a worthy Super Bowl performer (a crazy take if you ask me, but I can report from experience that these people/bots are legion on Elon Musk's internet). At the very least, it suggests Jay doesn't have the same pull on the West Coast that he enjoys in his home city. At the end of the show, Jay shared some words about that:
People will tell you that nobody was in here tonight, but you got eyes. You can see. People will tell you that the music wasn't great, but you got ears. You gotta understand. You gotta question everything in this world of AI and everything. I mean, it's been going on forever, right? We called it propaganda before. But now, with technology it's caught up. 'Cause people can trick — a lot of tricknology, it's called artificial intelligence because it's mimicking you guys. It's mimicking us. We got real intelligence, not artificial intelligence. We feel, right? This concert tonight, we felt. When Snoop and Dre came out, we felt that shit, correct? Too $hort, Bay Area. Make sure you question everything you feel. Machines are learning you. You tell 'em your swag, you tell 'em your name, and then it mimics you. It can't be you. It could never be you. Question everything, especially in these days and age, this day and age. Y'all feel me? Y'all feel me? Y'all feel me? They will tell you that Jigga ain't Jigga. Hov is motherfuckin' Hov! Peace and love, Los Angeles! I love you!
Is he saying the Ticketmaster screenshots were AI? That he's the victim of a propaganda campaign to make him look washed? I'm not sure I totally follow his line of reasoning, but I do believe he put on two great shows this weekend. Below, check out Jay-Z's speech, some of the guest appearances, and the ticket screenshots that were going around.