Steve Mirkin was impressed by Jay-Z and the renovated Palladium. He reports:
Decked out with new carpets and freshly painted, the refurbished marquee and a circular ceiling return the room to its original look;  the venerable venue is certainly swank. For the opening at least, the prison-like security searches have become a thing of the past. (How often are you patted down by a man wearing white gloves and a tux?). And most importantly the sound is much improved. 
There was still some boominess on the low end (although this is a problem at most live hip hop shows) but the vocals were audible and the mix was crisp and clear, without the muddy echo that was the most prominent feature of the old Palladium.
Jay-Z opened with “Say Hello” and acknowledged the historic nature of his perf, commenting that the venerable ballroom’ opened up in 1940 with a show by the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra featuring Frank Sinatra. “I like to think I’m the Sinatra of today.If he was ‘Old Blue Eyes,’ I’m ‘Old Brown Eyes.’”
Jay-Z then made the case that he is by far the most exciting performing in hip hop today.
The set included “Swagga Like Us,” featuring T.I. in the evening’s lone guest appearance, “99 Problems,” “Excuse Me Miss,” “Blue Magic,”  “Public Service Announcement,” “Minority Report” and "Hard Knock Life."

Story by Matt Kivel

This past weekend, Jay-Z made his hotly-anticipated headlining appearance at the Glastonbury music festival. The controversy and subsequent debate about whether or not a rapper should headline a predominantly rock 'n' roll festival, reached a fever pitch a few months ago when Noel Gallagher of Oasis publicly derided Glastonbury organizer Michael Eavis for his decision:

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it. If you start to break it than people aren't going to go. I'm sorry, but Jay-Z? No chance. Glastonbury has a tradition of guitar music ... I'm not having hip-hop at Glastonbury. It's wrong." (NME)

Now, the Gallaghers have always been endearing for their seeming obliviousness to modern trends in both music and culture -- they still parade around like it's the golden age of rock stardom, engaging in drunken punch-ups and a host of other shameless cliches -- but never has Noel seemed more out of touch and startingly irrelevent than he does in this situation.

Despite the groundswell of protest created by the controversial remarks, Jay-Z was greeted this past weekend by the Glastonbury faithful (100,000 strong) with an overwhelming display of enthusiasm. The hip-hop titan strutted onto the stage with a Fender strat strapped around his neck as Oasis' "Wonderwall" blared through the main stage PA.

He ended up doing a karaoke rendition of the tune, singing along haphazardly, forgetting words and laughing while the crowd cheered him on. It was a not-so-subtle flipping of the bird to Gallagher and everyone else who rejected the notion that the Brits were ready for something a little bit different than the NME-centric Glastonbury fare.      

Jay Z's "Wonderwall" Glastonbury 2008 / Oasis' "Wonderwall," Glastonbury 2004

Story by Andrew Barker

Reversing a 27-year policy, MTV announced today that it will begin accepting political advertising on all its networks not aimed at children. TV Week Reports:

"The channel, part of Viacom’s MTV Networks unit, says it will now take political ads, though only from political candidates and party political committees—not the third parties that often lob the biggest bombs."

"As recently as the presidential primaries this year, MTV had refused all political ads, even as it has heavily promoted its “Choose or Lose” get out the vote effort."

A presumably significant beneficiary of this policy would be youth-skewing Barack Obama, who revealed the contents of his iPod to Rolling Stone's Jann S. Wenner for the magazine's cover story, which went online today.

While the Senator has invoked Jay-Z several times before (whether intentionally or not), he now offers a full-fledged endorsement:

(Also on the prospective presidential playlist: The entirety of Bob Dylan's "Blood on the Tracks" as well as the rip-snorting "Maggie's Farm," and all five records from Stevie Wonder's '70s golden period. Considering that the current office-holder finds later-period Beatles too "weird" for his tastes, this has to be considered a step in the right direction.)

There are plenty of U.S. music festivals to choose from this summer, and now Canada has entered the fray with the inaugural Pemberton Festival, which is set for July 25-27 in Pemberton, B.C. (roughly two hours from Vancouver). The scheduled headliners are Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Jay-Z, Nine Inch Nails and Coldplay.

The rest of the line-up is well-rounded: My Morning Jacket, the Tragically Hip, Interpol, Metric, Buck 65, Black Mountain, Flaming Lips, Death Cab For Cutie, Vampire Weekend, MGMT, Sia, Fiery Furnaces, Mates of State, MSTRKRFT, Chromeo, The Airborne Toxic Event, Grand Ole Party, The Crystal Method, DJ Shadow & Cut Chemist and more.

Jay-Z has created his equivalent of "Tommy," "Operation-Mindcrime," "Ziggy Stardust" or whatever concept album you chose to compare it to, and he wants listeners to absorb it in full doses. To drive home the point that "American Gangster" should be taken whole and not in pieces, Jay-Z is not allowing the disc to be sold on Apple's iTunes store when it is released Tuesday.
“As movies are not sold scene by scene, this collection will not be sold as individual singles,” Jay-Z said in a statement. Album will be sold online at rocafella.com, Amazon.com and rhapsody.com in addition to brick-and-mortar stores.
Jay-Z's disc was inspired by the film starring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe and has no music associated with the film.