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Jay-Z Brings Hip-Hop to Glastonbury

by Zoe Strimpel
Sun, 29 Jun 2008 at 9:47 PM

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Glastonbury, Britain's biggest rock festival, has been a little different this year on a few levels. First, it didn't sell out; last year all 137,500 tickets sold even before the lineup was announced. For the first time in recent memory touts have been selling tickets at the door. Second, it hasn't rained 100% of the time. Consequently, the 600-acre site in founder Michael Eavis's Somerset farm has not been a mud bath, and so far, tents have not been swept away in a sea of liquid earth. Third, the headline act was not a rock band. It was Jay-Z. Some have tried to link the first oddity with the third, insisting that an American rapper was an insult to the spirit of the festival, whose Pyramid Stage normally hosts the likes of Radiohead, Coldplay, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The most outspoken critic was Noel Gallagher of Oasis, who said in April: "I'm not having hip-hop at Glastonbury. It's wrong."

Again, things have not turned out quite as expected. Last night Jay-Z rocked, to use a word Mr. Gallagher might find annoying . He opened with a video montage based on the "I'm not having hip-hop" comment, and to the delight of pretty much everyone (Jay-Z fans, Noel haters, general Glasto-heads), covered Oasis's "Wonderwall" with a guitar 'round his neck, a neat reference to his public response to the Oasis singer's comment a couple months back: "We don't play guitars, Noel, but hip-hop has put in its work like any other form of music."

Also of note: Amy Winehouse didn't completely bomb out. She actually sounded good until "Rehab," when she appeared to be trying to demonstrate the effects of the kind of behavior that gets you into rehab. She sang out of tune and wobbled all over the place as she raced down to the fence in front of the fans, tottering dangerously as security guards chased her. She did carry her other "Back to Black" hits pretty well, telling fans in an uncharacteristic moment of gratitude: "You don't know how happy I am to be here." Rock on.

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