Jay-Z to play 2 Yankee Stadium shows this summer
Jay-Z walks on the field before a Club World Cup semifinal soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid at MetLife Stadium, in East Rutherford, N.J., in 2025. Credit: AP / Frank Franklin II
JAŸ-Z will play back-to-back concerts at Yankee Stadium this summer to celebrate the anniversaries of two landmark albums.
On July 10, “JAŸ-Z 30” will salute 30th year of the 56-year-old hip-hop star’s 1996 debut, “Reasonable Doubt.” The following evening, “JAŸ-Z 25” will hail the 25th anniversary of “The Blueprint,” the 2001 album often cited as a high point of hip-hop. In an Instagram post announcing the shows, ticket seller Live Nation advised: “Stay Tuned.”
The Grammy-winning rapper and Roc Nation founder formerly known as Jay-Z, JAY-Z and sometimes even Jay:Z appears to have changed his name again. The hyphenated-caps-with-umlaut variant, which harks back to his debut album, now appears on streaming platforms and promotional material. It recently appeared in advertisements for his much-anticipated show with The Roots at Philadelphia’s Belmont Plateau on May 30.
The Brooklyn native, born Shawn Carter, opened the borough’s Barclays Center with an eight-night sold-out run in 2012, but his last proper solo tour was in 2017, supporting his album “4:44." (It included stops at both Barclays and the Nassau Coliseum.) With his wife, music superstar Beyoncé, he co-headlined 2018’s “On The Run II” tour, a sequel to their 2014 trek. He has performed sporadically since, appearing at the Manhattan nightclub Webster Hall in 2019, a Louis Vuitton runway show in Paris in 2023 and Tom Brady’s induction into the New England Patriots Hall of Fame in 2024.
Yankee Stadium holds a special significance for JAŸ-Z, a longtime fan of the Bronx Bombers. His 2009 anthem “Empire State of Mind” contains the lyric, “I made the Yankee hat more famous than a Yankee can.” Baseball Hall of Famer Derek Jeter had even used the song as his at-bat theme for a time. And JAŸ-Z performed the hit at the venue with Alicia Keys before Game 2 of the 2009 World Series. He also was the first artist to perform concerts at the new Yankee Stadium in 2010, sharing the bill with Eminem.
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