Vintage: Watch JAY-Z’s Summer Jam 2001 Performance In Full

blame it on Meka April 12, 2022

How cool is this?!

YouTube account HipHopVCR has uploaded the clearest footage of what was considered one of the most “you had to be there” moments in all of hip hop: JAY-Z‘s 2001 Hot 97 Summer Jam performance. For those unaware, this was the performance where not only Jay brought out Michael Jackson during his performance, but he would also debut the then-unfinished version of his infamous The Blueprint track “Takeover” (where he would also belittle late Mobb Deep member Prodigy by revealing some the rapper’s childhood photos).

“We went straight to the airport [after our performance in 2001] and got on a private jet,” OutKast’s Big Boi said in a Complex piece about the performance. “We were doing two-a-days at that time on that James Brown schedule. I don’t think we heard about it until we did our other show. It was like, ‘Damn, he brought out Michael Jackson?’”

Watch the near-hourlong set below.

[embedded content]