Voice of London

Words: Demi Bailey-Paul | Subbing: Stella Akinwumi

Jay-Z may have had 99 problems in the past but his current worldwide tour sure isn’t one of them.

After the release of Hova’s thirteenth album ‘4:44’ which was released on the 30^th June of this year, it landed Jay- Z with his 14^th number one album on the Billboard 200 charts and was also certified platinum within a week. The highly anticipated album was Jay’s chance to prove to the industry that he still had the midas touch, he rubbed the dirt off his shoulders and re-invented himself as a thought provoking rapper by shrugging off the old ‘Big Pimpin’ façade that many up and coming rappers class themselves as now.

Could his current solo tour of ‘4:44’ be his highest grossing yet? Well yes, it is in fact the highest grossing solo tour ever, according to Billboard magazine. The highly successful tour owes much of its success from a ticketing strategy whereby it puts high market value prices on the VIP, premium and front row tickets, which forces touts to set their prices closer to the actual value of the tickets.

The new album revealed a stripped back version of Jay-Z, behind the glitz, glam and ‘gangster’ image which the world hadn’t seen. Raw, genuine and notable moments in the album see Jay admitting to infidelity, speaking openly about his mother coming out as gay. In a time where racial tensions are extremely high in America, his controversial music video ‘Story of OJ’, examined issues of racial stereotypes within the history of cartoons and also in the history of America. – It seems this authentic Jay-Z is what the fans want.

However, there was actually speculation recently that the tour wasn’t doing so well, as upper tier tickets were being sold for as low as six dollars… but XXL magazine have stated that only after three shows the tour has pulled in more money than any of Mr Carter’s previous tours.