Last week, Live Nation gave Jay-Z (née Shawn Carter) between $100-$150 million in exchange for the next 10 years of his life, in the form of stock shares and promises of cash. The entertainment conglomerate will take control of his releases, his concerts and ticket sales, as well as bankroll Jay-Z’s own entertainment interest, Roc Nation, in a paternalistic arrangement conducted under the auspices of Live Nation.
Essentially, dude won’t be allowed to write a Valentine poem to Beyoncé without running it past the guys in legal before she reads it.
Jay-Z played his first post-deal concert on May 3rd at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey, ahead of a two-night Madison Square Garden stand that begins May 6 in New York City. It was part of the Heart of the City Tour, which he co-headlines with Mary J. Blige. The tour was already being produced by Live Nation, even as the new deal was being struck, so there were no immediate changes in the day-to-day routine.
Boardwalk Hall was sold-out, as are most of the shows on the tour, and the 20,000 faithful who came to the Atlantic City gig got exactly what they paid ridiculous sums of money to see–a highly predictable, seamless and stiffly professional big time showcase revue–a real snoozer. The sets of both Blige and Jay-Z involved immense backing bands with string and horn sections, live video feed to enable those in the nose-bleeds to feel as though they were actually at the show, pyrotechnics for those who enjoy deafening and jolting surprises, costume changes, and heart string-tugging video clips of Notorious B.I.G. as well as one of Jay-Z and Blige sharing their humble, platonic love, and giving each other props, etc.
With entertainment that is corporatized, commoditized and scripted out to such a level of exactitude, the average onlooker would not be able tell the difference between rapper Jay-Z and pop icon Elton John, or, hell, for that matter, even Céline Dion. In a deal where the money outstrips what was given in a similar arrangement to the vaunted Madonna last year by Live Nation, Jay-Z has–as the late comedian Bill Hicks would have put it–taken himself off of the the “artistic roll call, forever!” Jay-Z is now melded, at a mitochondrial level, with the dreaded and monstrous Corporatia. He is beyond anyone’s intervening reach. Allow the man some dignity in his passing and, please, look away.