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No artist like Jay-Z on the arena circuit.

A hilariously wealthy and famous 40 year-old with an infinite stream of big songs that shuts down local media upon arrival.* At the same time, Hova is a folk hero and the mouthpiece of a movement and any fan of the genre worth his or her salt jumps at opportunity to hear his verses. Any verses. Blueprint 3 verses, fine.

It would have been nice to land Wale on this leg of the tour, but Jay's openers proved interesting.

J. Cole was humble, hella nice and competent during an awkward 10-minute set in front of N.E.R.D.'s equipment. A silver-spooned rapper with no album but an opening slot on the biggest tour of the season and a mixtape called The Come Up (!?!) and an unwarranted verse on the most anticipated album of the year, Cole is an easy target until he proves himself. Rocking a half-empty arena with the lights up to at least 600 haters is a step in the right direction.

Pharrell's poorly formed vision of what a constitutes bold, forward thinking, edgy music (jumping around, a dude hammering away on a Korg, college girls dancing on stage), sucked balls as usual.

From the opening chords of "Run This Town" through a well-balanced set list, Hova was musical, on point, in sunglasses. It's a testament to his catalog that dude totally ignored his last great album, 2007's American Gangster. No Reasonable Doubt either, but when you can throw on monster cuts like "U Don't Know" or "Jigga My Nigga" from an era wherein Jay-Z or DMX was a reasonable debate, don't complain about the lack of old stuff.

Jay was personable (crowd obliged his request to sing the University of Texas' alma mater) and charming (during his staple end-of-show acknowledgement of crowd he eyeballed a man with a pretty girlfriend, "don't fuck that up"). Austin's Erwin Center is a moderately sized drum of a venue, and the towering, blinding backdrop from the Madison Square Garden show looked that much more menacing crowded within.

During the meaty middle of the gig, there was a suffocating triumverate of "Nigga What, Nigga Who," "Public Service Announcement," and "Heart of the City." I don't even have to hyperlink them shits. World class.

Hit the jump for the rest of the setlist.



*The local hip-hip station, (I see you, Hot 93.3), played "Public Service Announcement" almost every other song for several hours. The station reportedly received an avalanche of last minute calls requesting tickets, including charmingly authentic live exchanges like "I just got a babysitter, ya'll got any tickets for me?"

What a set list.

Opening with "Wanna Be Starting Something" and "Jam" back-to-back, closing with "Billie Jean" and "Man in the Mirror." A Jackson 5 medley culminating with a heartbreaking rendition of "I'll Be There." A show-stopping "The Way You Make Me Feel" arrangement. Hits upon hits in the spaces.