Jay-Z did appear to promise far in advance that his “Reasonable Doubt” 30th anniversary show would, in fact, be a celebration of the debut album that he dropped back in June 1996. That didn’t stop him from pulling out all the stops — well, most of them, at least — during the first of his three headlining shows at Yankee Stadium on Friday night, setting off a string of performances to commemorate a pair of milestones (the other being the 25th anniversary of “The Blueprint”) plus a bonus show billed as “Extra Innings” that, as of now, has a stadium-sized question mark hanging over what it will actually be.
The Brooklyn native isn’t wont to pass up an anniversary — think back to 2006 when he paid tribute to 10 years of “Reasonable Doubt” with a Radio City show complete with a full orchestra — or make a mountain out of an already sizable molehill. The first of his Yankee Stadium gigs came a little over a month after the end of a dormant solo period when he gave a one-off, had-to-be-there headlining performance at the Roots Picnic in Philadelphia, where, backed by the legendary Roots crew, he toured his discography while paying homage to the hosting city via guest appearances from Jazmine Sullivan, Bilal, Beanie Sigel, Freeway and more.
