I’ve now been working with Jay-Z on his live show for 5 days. If you read my last post, I said they were asking me to recommend a DJ. I didn’t want to write that they had already picked Neil Armstrong as the DJ because I wasn’t sure if he had announced it yet. So I kept it vague. Now everybody’s asking me to recommend this guy or that guy. They have a DJ! I didn’t end up recommending anyone, I just came in and gave my input on the music.
OK so the 2 sentences in the title aren’t exactly related but they’re both pretty exciting. I haven’t talked much about this record thus far and the powers that be are saying you’ll have to wait a few more weeks to find out exactly what it is. But I can say this: I finished an A-Trak record, it’s longer than an album but it’s not an album… although it is all original production. I can also say I’ve been working on it for weeks and weeks and I can finally breathe! Until my phone rings.
We were first supposed to go to Nigeria exactly one year ago for some Kanye dates but it was canceled because Jay-Z and Beyonce had just gone and they found it dangerous. So when I found out we were going this year I was like “oh great”…. but then I thought: we’re only going for 2 or 3 days and we probably won’t see anything else than the plane, the hotel and the venue so heck, this won’t feel any different than El Paso, Texas. I wasn’t shook anymore. Then as we got closer, they told us we had to get shots against hepatitis A and thyphoid and start taking malaria pills. “How victorian!” said my girlfriend. The band was flying out on the 12th but I had booked this 10.Deep x Fool’s Gold holiday party in New York on that date. Can’t I fly out on the 13th? Isn’t the first show on the 14th? “You can fly with Kanye on the private jet,” they tell me. Alright, if you insist.
WARNING: THIS IS A LONG POST!
Time to dust off the ol’ pad and pen. It’s the return of Alain Blogovitch. Web-Trak 2.0. Did ya miss me? I know, I know, my online chronicles took a severe dip in 2007. But I just finished the European leg of the Glow In The Dark tour with K-Dub and I simply had to let the ink pour. It’s now or never. Walk with me.
We’ve done a couple of Kanye shows since the new album dropped, but the official tour only started with this run. Whole new show, new band, new set, new stage design, new lights, new visuals, new catering. Nu rave? Almost, with all the neon-ness.
After the Rub show I went straight to the airport and flew to Miami, where we had a Pepsi Smash concert with Kanye, Common and John Legend. We had a whole string section accompanying us, including a harp! The show was bonkers. Common rocked it too, with DJ Dummy plus Karriem Riggins and Omar on the keys. But the real highlight was when we performed an acoustic version of the “Diamonds” remix, and your boy Hova the God came out of the woodworks. The crowd lost their minds. We went into excerpts of “Encore”, “P.S.A.” and “U Don’t Know”, and I’m standing there thinking “holy macaroni, that’s Jay-Z telling me to play the beat.” Later that night Kanye rented a yaught and we went a-sailing along the Miami Sound (I think that’s where we were). Notice that there’s not much sleeping going on here.
I’m speechless.
