Go with the flow: Jay-Z
What is it with high-profile rappers here and their continual tardiness? If all I needed to do was bust out a rhyme or two, I could be onstage within a minute or two and in front of the mic.
However, if I attempted that on the Main Stage at T in the Park I'd probably drown in the pints of p**s thrown at me within the space a single song, whereas Jay-Z receives the expectant audience's adulation as soon as he shows up a mere 15 minutes late. Sometimes life’s just not fair.
Though, in truth, everyone who witnesses the set that follows turns out to have been dealt a particularly favourable hand, on this occasion at least. Dual percussionists set a fearsome precedent as the rest of the band groove on, the heavy-built Shawn Carter sauntering on to his home for the next hour or so and name-checking The Sopranos and Steve Wonder during the grand, scene-setting Intro. Off and running at a pace already well in excess of his peers, he then exhorts the crowd to "C'mon, bounce!" during Run This Town. This they duly do.
For every bit that Eminem appeared jaded and off his best form last night, Jay-Z comparatively seems supremely confident, relaxed in his position as a critically acclaimed globe-straddling rap megastar. He navigates his his way fluidly through the likes of the Shirley Bassey-sampling Diamonds from Sierra Leone without ever looking in danger of missing a beat, the whole set carefully planned and gloriously well executed.
This is superlative hip hop extravaganza on a grand scale, sounding so huge that it probably deserves its own postcode, Jay-Z’s sizeable ensemble making for a formidable presence and bringing some real soul to what otherwise could be no more than another notch in the festival circuit bedpost, a grin-inducing The Doors-sampling Takeover finding itself superseded by a blistering U Don’t Know.
99 Problems is absolutely pounding, any hopes of anyone in the crowd NOT bouncing extinguished when Jay-Z urges the crowd to "jump like you're trying to reach the sky" before he exhibits some virtuoso rap skills over The Prodigy'sSmack My Bitch Up. With no shortage of tunes on which he’s guested to also choose from, he breaks into Panjabi MC’s brilliant Beware of the Boys, then moving onwards to the jiggy falsetto-sporting brilliance of I Just Wanna Love You.
Then it's time for a heart-warming paean to the Big Apple, Empire State of Mind providing the sweetest singalong of the weekend (and surely seeing New York blushing in embarrassment over on the other side of the world), before Dirt off Your Shoulder gets everyone grooving again, Jay-Z indulging in an a capella finale that draws another round of cheers, as though he’s not already gathered enough...
This is undoubtedly biggest and slickest star draw of the weekend, the whole hour flying by so smoothly that by the time Show Me What You Got, Big Pimpin, Hard Knock Life and Numb/Encore are all rolled out and the set finished it feels like we’ve just been given a masterclass in how to headline a festival - and even given a complimentary on the way out - and politely shown the door before we realise quite how much effort must have been put into the rather phenomenal experience. Jay-Z flows through his entire set with as much ease as he does each of his songs, but there should be no mistaking the great talent that lies behind his T in the Park set, and the large amount of effort made to ensure that it seems as though rap kingpin has hardly broken a sweat. It really is a superb sight, and as for the sound...
