Rappers plan double September concerts
It's a hip-hop home run: Superstar rappers Eminem and Jay-Z will play a Comerica Park show on Sept. 2.
The blockbuster show is part of a two-concert stand that will include a Sept. 13 date at New York's Yankee Stadium -- a home-and-home series for Detroit's Eminem and New York's Jay-Z.
Eminem will headline the Comerica Park show, with Jay-Z in that slot for the New York date.
The two announced the concerts live on ESPN during the third inning of Wednesday evening's game between the Detroit Tigers and New York Yankees at Comerica Park. They wore their respective teams' gear and earlier posed with Tigers players on the field.
"We had talked about doing something together again soon anyway," Eminem told ESPN's Dave O'Brien and Rick Sutcliffe. "We just tried to come up with the best way and biggest way to do it."
Ticket information has not been announced.
It's as star-powered a matchup as they come: Eminem and Jay-Z, two of the top-selling music acts of the past decade, were ranked No. 1 and 2 respectively in Vibe magazine's Best Rapper Alive poll in 2008.
The Detroit-New York stand marks the biggest collaboration yet between the two. Eminem was a guest on Jay-Z's 2001 track "Renegade."
"We've done things together -- smaller shows and whatnot," said Eminem. "But I'm not sure we've ever done anything this big."
Said Jay-Z: "I look for opportunities to work with Em, any time we get a chance to collaborate on things."
The Comerica Park show will be Eminem's first full-blown concert in his hometown since an August 2005 date at the ballpark. That also turned out to be his final concert appearance for more than four years, as he slipped out of public view and into semi-retirement.
The Detroit and New York shows will follow a string of European performances for Eminem this summer, accompanying the June release of his "Recovery" album. No other U.S. dates have been announced.
Jay-Z has played a pair of Michigan shows in recent months, including a March date at the Palace of Auburn Hills.
Eminem had hinted at the coming news with an overnight post on Twitter, including a cryptic double entendre that turned out to be baseball-related: "The announcement is tomorrow. It's gonna be a big 'hit.' "
The pair moved over to the Fox Sports Detroit booth for a chat with Detroit Tigers announcers Rod Allen and Mario Impemba during the top of the fourth inning.
Eminem had earlier told the ESPN crew that he was easing back into life as a baseball fan.
"I had stepped away from baseball for years," he said. "I'm getting back into it now, getting reacquainted with who's who. ... My whole career, everything's been so busy, but when I get a chance to catch up with sports, I do."
While Eminem remained in a luxury suite, Jay-Z departed during the fifth inning, quickly signing autographs on the Montcalm sidewalk before hopping into a Cadillac Escalade bound for the airport.
Source:freep
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