Jay-Z @ House of Blues

Hip-hop royalty Jay-Z made a stop in Houston recently to help open the brand-spanking new House of Blues. Eggs and I weren't able to make it to the show, but BOT friend Annie Barrera was kind enough to share her thoughts, photos and videos with us - check 'em out after the jump!

Words, photos and videos by Annie Barrera

I feel compelled to begin by saying that I am a huge Jay-Z fan. Let’s just say I’ve seen Jay-Z: Fade to Black more times than I would ever publicly admit. So when I heard that he would be playing a show at the new House of Blues in Houston, I was ecstatic...until I heard how much tickets cost: $185 for general admission and $360 for balcony seats. Luckily, I went back and forth for so long about whether or not I could drop that kind of cash on a show that I was able to snag a pair of tickets for the "Grand Opening Special" price of $95 dollars each the day before the show. Score!

When we walked into the House of Blues around 9:30pm on Thursday, October 16, it was already packed. Jay-Z wasn’t hitting the stage until 10:00, so we decided to head upstairs to scope out our real seats in the balcony (which we weren’t even planning on sitting in), get drinks at a bar that wasn’t totally packed and check out all the suckers up there who paid full price for their seats. After purchasing our $7.00 beers we headed back downstairs to meet up with friends and get as close to the stage as possible. On the way there, we bumped into Bun B (who is surprisingly small in real life) which made us think that a “Big Pimpin’” collaboration was imminent.

After finding a spot pretty close to the front but left of center, we waited for the show to begin. A few minutes later, the lights came down and a full band in tuxedos (sans jackets) began playing the introduction to “Say Hello” off last year’s American Gangster. After playing a few bars while the packed crowd cheered, out came Jay-Z clad in jeans, white t-shirt, leather jacket, sunglasses and diamond chain. I instantly knew this was going to be an incredible show.

“Say Hello” turned out to be a bit of a tease that transitioned into “U Don’t Know” from Jay-Z’s classic album The Blueprint, featuring fellow Brooklyn rapper Memphis Bleek. Jay played a string of hits throughout the show. My personal highlights included “Public Service Announcement,” “99 Problems,” “Nigga What, Nigga Who” and “H to the Izzo (H.O.V.A.).” Jay also ran through his two newest singles, "Swagger Like Us" and "Jockin' Jay-Z (Dope Boy Fresh)," both of which are expected to be included on his upcoming album, The Blueprint 3, which is due in stores on December 9. I would have also listed “Big Pimpin’” on my list of highlights, but although Bun B attended the show he did not perform along with Jay-Z, which I really didn’t understand. How can you perform a show in Houston in the presence of Bun B without a "Big Pimpin'" duet?! It's just wrong! Jay-Z did, however, ask that the audience throw their diamonds in the sky in remembrance of Chad "Pimp C" Butler, Bun B's partner in the legendary Southern rap group UGK, who passed away in December of 2007.

I was pleasantly surprised by how talkative Jay-Z was throughout the night. His preferred topics were the upcoming election (don't forget to VOTE on Tuesday if you haven't already) and his candidate of choice, Barack Obama. He brought up Obama's name no less than three times and the audience seemed to heavily favor the Democratic candidate. At one point in the evening Jigga made an attempt at diplomacy: "Just to be fair, we got any McCain supporters in the up in here?" The question was met with a barrage of loud boos from the packed crowd. From the looks of it Jay found one person up front who was brave enough to admit that he was a McCain supporter and Jay comforted him by saying, "It's bipartisan; we're all good."

Jay-Z closed the less-than-90-minute set by running through a medley of hits with special guest DJ AM, who recently survived a fatal plane crash and looked beyond thrilled to be sharing the stage with the Jigga man. Jay-Z's encore consisted of "Hard Knock Life" and, appropriately, "Encore." Like many of the other attendees, I wish his set had been a bit longer but I felt fortunate to have had the opportunity to see the best rapper alive in a setting as intimate as the House of Blues. The show was worth every penny.