★★★☆☆Have you ever seen a billionaire hip-hop oligarch eat humble pie? It would probably look something like Jay-Z’s extraordinary headline show at V Festival on Sunday, when he performed tracks from his emotionally raw new album, 4:44, live for the first time, while standing beneath a monumentally huge Jeff Koons balloon-dog statue. His core lyrical message was clear: Black Wives Matter. Ditching the big-band showmanship and widescreen video montages of previous tours, Jay-Z was accompanied only by a small, anonymous, heavily electronic trio. In a bold gambit, he front-loaded the…

Source: The Times August 21, 2017 11:03 UTC