On Opening Night, The Barclays Center Becomes Jay-Z’s House

Entertainer Jay-Z performs on stage at the newly built Barclays Center.

Jay-Z has less than a 1% stake in the Brooklyn Nets, but he claimed ownership of the Barclays Center on its opening night Friday in New York.
“Welcome to my house!” he shouted near the beginning of his two-hour set, wearing a black and white Nets jersey emblazoned with the number 4 and his last name, Carter. He stalked a narrow strip of stage, which banked upward behind him to where members of his band occupied slots in the surface. The smooth surfaces formed a sort of open mouth behind the rapper and a glossy screen for cascading lights and video.
Before he took the stage, snapshots of Brooklyn slid across the backdrop, bridging moments in history that included the completion of the Brooklyn Bridge (1883) and the opening of Ebbets Field (1913). There was also an image of the late rapper Ol’ Dirty Bastard, who was born in the borough.

Last night was the first of eight inaugural shows at the venue for Jay-Z. A sold-out crowd of about 18,000 people filled the hulking building, sheathed in panels of steel. Inside, a cross-section of New Yorkers jostled along the passageways of muted gray, some joking about “the new arena smell” as they loaded up on beer, burgers, sushi and sweets from the Brooklyn cheesecake mecca, Junior’s.

Credit : WSJ Online