An artist usually cannot attain legendary status within his or her lifetime. They either have to die from old age — or better yet, a sensationalistic, mysterious death — for everyone to worship at their shrine. Only the rare few achieve widespread praise from everyone and anyone while they are still living. In the world of hip-hop, Jay-Z is a member of this select elite.
The man, empire, and legend is on his 2006 World Tour and will be in Taipei tomorrow for a one-off concert. Taiwan will be the only Mandarin-speaking territory on Jay-Z's map and as a consequence, the promoters, Party Room and True Color Music, are bringing out all the stops.
“The rider alone is 300 pages!” George Trivino, True Colors' main organizer, joyously exclaims. “Jay-Z is flying in his entire entourage, as well as a ton of equipment: LED screens, sound system ... [the] quality will be top notch.”
PHOTO COURTESY OF TRUE COLORS MUSIC GROUP
Promoters always make this kind of promise when an international celebrity comes to Taipei. But more often than not, the artist flies in, plays the bare requirement, and flies out again with a whopping stack of NT dollars. Just last month, Missy Elliot performed for a paltry sixty minutes. With poor sound and chaotic organization, the concert ripped-off thousands of people.
“Oh, I wouldn't worry about that [happening again]” said Trivino. He added that in terms of live performances, the Missy and Jay-Z shows will be in “different leagues.” Firstly, the venue that will showcase Jay-Z — the Taipei Arena — is a vast improvement over the one used for Missy, the Taipei World Trade Center 2. “The Taipei Arena is Taipei's premiere venue, with a great stage and sound - it's truly world class,” says Trivino. What's more, Jay-Z is guaranteed to play for 90 to 120 minutes.
Jay-Z won't be alone on stage, either. “His shows definitely have a party atmosphere” with many of his cohorts alongside the Great One. Who we'll actually see on stage with Jay-Z remains in doubt, as it's his final decision. But past shows have been star-studded affairs, featuring good friends and long-time partners like Mary J. Blige, Guestlove, and Pharrell Williams. What's more, according to sources close to the event, Jay-Z's girlfriend, Beyonce Knowles, will be in attendance at this Saturday's concert.
“This concert is the most important foreign hip-hop concert to come to Taiwan yet,” said Mike Jansen, aka. THATguy, local hip-hop DJ and promoter of SoundMindset Productions. “If you're not excited about seeing him perform, just go watch Fade To Black ... his live show is nothing short of spectacular.”
His marriage of hardcore raps with friendly beats and hooks means Jay-Z's fan base is one-part rap purists, one-part hoods, and one-part suburbanite mall-shoppers.
The culmination of his career came in 2003, when Jay became the CEO of the major record label, Def Jam/Island Records. Wanting to make the most of his new role, not only for himself but to set an example for other young African American entrepreneurs, Jay-Z retired from performing. But even he called it the “worst retirement in history.” Jay continued to play live and feature on other artists' tracks until, in a surprise to no-one, his new album, Kingdom Come, was announced for a November 21st, 2006 release date.
Now in his golden age, Jay-Z is a busy man with an incredible amount of responsibilities. For that reason, George Trivino believes that Saturday's concert will probably be the only time Jay-Z will ever come to Taiwan. “He's just too busy ... he's CEO of a record label, a UN Goodwill ambassador, a bar owner.” The concert, then, will truly be a historic event for Taiwan's music culture. Legends don't come around everyday.
May 11 to May 18 The original Taichung Railway Station was long thought to have been completely razed. Opening on May 15, 1905, the one-story wooden structure soon outgrew its purpose and was replaced in 1917 by a grandiose, Western-style station. During construction on the third-generation station in 2017, workers discovered the service pit for the original station’s locomotive depot. A year later, a small wooden building on site was determined by historians to be the first stationmaster’s office, built around 1908. With these findings, the Taichung Railway Station Cultural Park now boasts that it has
The latest Formosa poll released at the end of last month shows confidence in President William Lai (賴清德) plunged 8.1 percent, while satisfaction with the Lai administration fared worse with a drop of 8.5 percent. Those lacking confidence in Lai jumped by 6 percent and dissatisfaction in his administration spiked up 6.7 percent. Confidence in Lai is still strong at 48.6 percent, compared to 43 percent lacking confidence — but this is his worst result overall since he took office. For the first time, dissatisfaction with his administration surpassed satisfaction, 47.3 to 47.1 percent. Though statistically a tie, for most
Six weeks before I embarked on a research mission in Kyoto, I was sitting alone at a bar counter in Melbourne. Next to me, a woman was bragging loudly to a friend: She, too, was heading to Kyoto, I quickly discerned. Except her trip was in four months. And she’d just pulled an all-nighter booking restaurant reservations. As I snooped on the conversation, I broke out in a sweat, panicking because I’d yet to secure a single table. Then I remembered: Eating well in Japan is absolutely not something to lose sleep over. It’s true that the best-known institutions book up faster
In February of this year the Taipei Times reported on the visit of Lienchiang County Commissioner Wang Chung-ming (王忠銘) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and a delegation to a lantern festival in Fuzhou’s Mawei District in Fujian Province. “Today, Mawei and Matsu jointly marked the lantern festival,” Wang was quoted as saying, adding that both sides “being of one people,” is a cause for joy. Wang was passing around a common claim of officials of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the PRC’s allies and supporters in Taiwan — KMT and the Taiwan People’s Party — and elsewhere: Taiwan and
RSS