Jay-Z opened his two night SoFi Stadium run on Friday with his 14 year old daughter on the piano, Destiny’s Child dancing in a suite, and Rihanna and Kendrick Lamar in the building.
Blue Ivy Carter was the first guest of the night. She sat down at the piano and played through “The Story of O.J.” and “Dead Presidents” while her dad rapped, then hugged him, bowed and blew kisses to the crowd on her way off.
“No, seriously, make some noise for the one and only Blue Ivy Carter tonight.”
Jay-Z, introducing his daughter at SoFi Stadium
The guests kept coming. Scarface joined Jay-Z for “This Can’t Be Life” and his own “Mind Playing Tricks on Me,” and John Legend and DJ Khaled came out at the end to close the show with “God Did.” In between, Jay-Z worked a tribute to Nipsey Hussle into “Hard Knock Life” and “On to the Next One,” folding in pieces of “Hussle & Motivate” and “Last Time That I Checc’d.”
Up in a suite, Beyoncé, Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams spent the night dancing together, a Destiny’s Child reunion happening in the crowd instead of on the stage. Rihanna was down on the floor dancing and posing for pictures with fans, and Kendrick Lamar was spotted in a suite with his fiancée Whitney Alford.
The SoFi shows close out the JAŸ-Z30 run, Jay-Z’s year of shows marking 30 years since “Reasonable Doubt” and 25 years since “The Blueprint.” Night two is tonight, and after a first night like this, nobody is expecting him to keep it simple.