S. Samuel
Rap mogul Jay-Z is going to let the entire world experience his new Barclays Center arena without even needing to leave their homes after locking in a deal with YouTube.
According to reports, Young Hov has partnered with the gigantic video-based site to live stream an upcoming eight scheduled shows.
Jay-Z is live-streaming the last of his eight concerts at New York City’s Barclays Center for the launch of his new YouTube channel. The rapper announced Thursday his performance at the new Brooklyn sports arena will be live-streamed on Saturday at 9:30 p.m. Eastern time. He says it’ll air on his new Life and Times channel. Jay-Z ‘s new channel is part of an original programming initiative by YouTube , owned by Mountain View, Calif.-based Google Inc. Life and Times promises a lineup of “in depth lifestyle pieces” based on the tastes and interests of Jay-Z. The rapper is christening the Barclays Center with a weeklong series of shows. The arena is the home of the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets, of which Jay-Z is a minority owner. (Washington Times)
To help with the YouTube launch, Jigga has linked up with IconicTV.
For Life + Times, Jay-Z partnered with IconicTV, a company that will run the channel like a television network with video content including a Brooklyn Nets series called The Road to Brooklyn, the fan-interaction show Roc Nation Check-In and Well Dunn With Jourdan Dunn, about the British supermodel. (Rolling Stone)
IconicTV co-founde Michael Hirschorn has already weighed in on the partnership.
“The site really is a way for Jay to showcase the breadth of his interests, from fashion, architecture, music, style, food, consumables, electronics, and so forth,” said Michael Hirschorn, the co-founder and chief creative officer of IconicTV. “We’re approaching this channel and programming it, not at the level of an MTV or a BET – at least, not yet – but really programming it as a real channel that will have regular content, some featuring him, some under his creative direction, but that when he wants to reach his audience, he’s no longer going to have to go through an intermediary to get to that audience.” (Statement)
A week ago, Jay launched his Barclays Center inaugural concert series.
“Tonight is a celebration, a celebration of where I’m from,” Hov told the crowd before launching into the hard-hitting “Where I’m From” from his 1997 album, In My Lifetime, Vol. 1. The homage didn’t stop there; next was the Santigold-sampling “Brooklyn We Go Hard” followed by a heartfelt cover of the Notorious B.I.G.‘s “Kick in the Door” and then a crowd sing-a-long of Biggie’s first hit “Juicy.” After stripping off his bubble vest revealing a black Nets jersey with the number four on his chest (to commemorate his own December 4 birthday), the God MC tore through tracks like “99 Problems,” “Run This Town” and “Empire State of Mind” one by one. He even threw in a brand-new a cappella freestyle to the crowd’s delight. “Shooters on my team,no really I got shooters on my team,” he spit, making reference to his part ownership of the Nets and the street ties he still claims to carry. (RapFix)
Check out some recent Jay-Z footage below:
