for a sold-out concert on Friday night to open Brooklyn's new
basketball stadium.
The rapper who grew up just two miles away from the new Barclays
Center arena - now the home court of the Brooklyn Nets basketball team
- talked about how far he had come in a show sprinkled with emotional
speeches.
"I've been on many stages all around the world and nothing feels like
tonight," Jay-Z told the cheering audience.
"I'm really overwhelmed by the moment," he said as he described his
humble beginnings in Marcy Houses, a Brooklyn public housing project
he noted was just 15 minutes away from the arena. "I can't believe
that this day has come."
Jay-Z, who raps about the time he spent as a drug dealer, released his
first album in 1996. He is now one of the most successful rappers in
the world, owns a minority stake in the Nets and has businesses
including a clothing label.
He encouraged members of the packed crowd to have their own stab at success.
"I believe everybody in the world is born with genius level talent ...
Apply yourself to whatever you're genius at and you can do anything in
the world," he said.
It was the first of eight Jay-Z concerts planned for the venue in the
arena's first week.
Jay-Z sported the team's jersey and hat as he sang recent hits like
Empire State of Mind and returned to his highly acclaimed debut album
Reasonable Doubt.
The rapper, whose real name is Shawn Carter, has been heavily involved
in the promotion of the 18,000-seat arena, which took years to move
from concept to reality partly because it met with legal challenges
and opposition from people in nearby residential areas such as Fort
Greene and Park Slope.
The stadium, which started construction in 2009, will bring a major
professional sports team back to Brooklyn for the first time in 55
years when the Dodgers baseball team moved away from Brooklyn to Los
Angeles and became the L.A. Dodgers.
Jay-Z showed off a jersey worn by Dodgers player Jackie Robinson -
also the first African American Major League Baseball player.
He paid tribute to deceased rap star and fellow Brooklyn native
Notorious B.I.G. by projecting an image of him on the stage and
covering two of his songs. Brooklyn hip-hop pioneer Big Daddy Kane
appeared later in the evening.
Bob Dylan, Barbara Streisand and the Smashing Pumpkins are all due to
appear at the Barclays Center during its first two months