The news that New York rapper Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter is planning to quit the music industry has come as another blow to the world of hip-hop. Once the most popular genre in the US, rap is looking increasingly beleaguered. Sales are plummeting. Now, its biggest star outside of Eminem has announced that he plans to concentrate on acting. A cynic might suggest that his retirement looks suspiciously like a vote of no confidence in an ailing scene.
One reason given for hip-hop's slump is the fact that, as one LA Times writer tactfully put it, "rap concerts have never matured to rival the genre's record sales". While Jay-Z is never less than professional - not for him the traditional hip-hop routine of arriving on stage hours late, then sloping off in a huff three songs later - his show highlights rap's live shortcomings. There are pyrotechnics, but there is not much stagecraft, unless you count a man playing a backing tape at the side of the set, which is designed to look like a suburban bar.
Thus attention is focussed on Jay-Z himself. Famously no one's idea of a pin-up - his face naturally arranges itself into an odd expression somewhere between bemusement and fury, as if he has not quite heard what you said, but is going to thump you anyway - the rapper also turns out to be no one's idea of a conversationalist. Aside from the inevitable cry of "Wassup London?" and the equally inevitable suggestion that the audience remember murdered rappers Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls, Jay-Z is virtually silent between songs.
With 14m records sold, however, Jay-Z has hits to spare and a multitude of styles at his disposal. His set zips along, flitting from the raw, funk-influenced I Just Wanna Love U to Hard Knock Life, which manages to make capital from a sample of winsome children's musical Annie. The crowd's reaction, so unquestioningly vehement it would scare Saddam Hussein off his balcony, underlines how fantastic his records largely are; hip-hop will be poorer in every sense if he does indeed retire. However, with his lyrical skills smothered by muddy sound, and charisma in short supply, Jay-Z's live show adds little to an impressive body of work.
