Jay-Z & Kanye West Prove Just How Big Hip-Hop Tours Can Be
Published: Saturday - May 31, 2008
Words by Miles Bennett
Jay-Z and Kanye West (Photo: Getty Images)
Tours have been known to be money makers for artists of all genres. But as CDs continued to dwindle in the modern day, artists like Jay-Z and Kanye West are making sure they make up for it while on the road.
Via a recent piece on RollingStone.com, the two hip-hop superstars are proving just how profitable being on the road can actually be.
Jay-Z's tour with Mary J. Blige, which ended in early May, has reportedly grossed more than $23 million, including sold-out dates at Madison Square Garden and the Hollywood Bowl. West's tour, on the other hand, that featured Rihanna, N.E.R.D. and Lupe Fiasco, which will end on June 13th, is also set to record big numbers -- $21 million is the estimate, according to Pollstar.
The estimates are strong despite most hip-hop shows garnering mixed reviews, and Live Nation -- the company who closed a deal estimated at $150 million with Jay-Z earlier this month to nab a stake in most aspects of his career -- expects it to be the beginning of the tour's importance to the genre.
"Hip-hop is starting to mature," Live Nation exec Faisel Durrani told RollingStone.com. "At some point we will reflect back at how important these tours were in the growth of the [hip-hop concert] business."
Jay and Kanye's tours are two that had surpassed numbers of several of hip-hop tours over the past few years. In fact, according to the magazine's story, from 2003 to 2007, only one hip-hop tour made Pollstar's Top 20 list of North American tours, and that was Eminem and 50 Cent's Anger Management, which grossed $21.6 million three years ago. Over this time period, however, both T.I. and The Game -- both of which are platinum selling artists -- failed to produce highly profitable tours, despite having a huge name in the genres.
Some people feel it's because of the most tours' entertainment value. "A lot of times, hip-hop shows haven't translated live," said Adam Friedman, chief executive of L.A. concert-promotion company Nederlander.
Jay-Z and Kanye have made the necessary adjustments to prove naysayers wrong though. Both rappers have broadened their live shows from a DJ and a mic to live bands, pyrotechnics, and out of this world light shows.
On West's Glow in the Dark Tour, for example, it begins with an alien coming down from the sky who declares the rapper "the biggest star in the universe" and the rest is much like a space opera complete with spaceships, video-screen galaxies and more. Jay's, on the other hand, came with a 12-piece band.
"This is the first time in history that someone from hip-hop reaches for the levels of the Rolling Stones," Roots' member, ?uestlove, said. "Jay-Z and Kanye are saying, 'Bono and Jagger are our peers.'"
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