Vol. 5, No. 5, May 2008
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Soulful Summit
Jay-Z and Mary J. Blige appear at Boardwalk Hall Saturday, May 3. Tickets are $65.75, $100.75, $165.75 and $350.
Jay-Z and Mary J. Blige come to Boardwalk Hall May 3 for a summit of hip-hop, rap, R&B and soul.
One of music’s most financially successful hip-hop entrepreneurs, Jay-Z blends pop and street styles in tunes like “Feelin’ It,” “Sunshine,” “The City Is Mine” and “Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem),” in which he memorably sampled a song from the hit Broadway musical Annie. He is also co-owner of the 40/40 Club on Atlantic Avenue and the New Jersey Nets basketball team.
Mary J. Blige, a former directory information operator, came out of nowhere in 1992 with the release of the hit CD What's the 411? The album displayed raw emotional intensity and a soulful sound that invited comparisons with Aretha Franklin and Patti LaBelle; it produced several hit singles including “You Remind Me” and “Real Love.”
Since then, Blige has sold more than 40 million albums worldwide, earned more than two dozen Grammy awards, and influenced a whole new generation of artists. She’s also trying her hand at acting (TV’s Strong Medicine, Entourage and Ghost Whisperer), and is reportedly set to portray music legend Nina Simone in a biopic.
The tour, on the road since early March, has been called “thrilling,” and “one of the most potent urban music bills in recent memory” with nearly three hits backed by a 12-piece horn and string section.
