"And baby It’s amazing I’m in this maze with you, I just can’t crack the code, one day you screaming you love me loud, the next day you’re so cold...."

Holy Grail

It was going to be hard for “The Legends of the Summer” tour to actually top the ultimate anticipation and expectations surrounding its build up, however when that tour includes the number one pop artist and the number one artist in rap, not to mention said artist both promoting new albums, you can see why expectations were high.

Here’s what you should know: Justin Timberlake is a tremendous pop artist. He’s a showman, a song and dance king. He’s been doing this thing before even he remembers. Justin can sing and dance and entertain in his sleep. Where he begs and pleads for approval, his tour-mate Shawn Carter basically demands it, un-apologetically. Trying to find a common comfortable ground, both played wingman throughout the night for each other. With large band in hand and a tremendous stage setting, the show opener “Holy Grail”, echo’ed throughout the 60,000 plus packed Soldier Field like anew generation sing a long anthem…and it’s fitting, in a music industry so fickle and built on stars who rise and fall within minutes, both artists were here, in this moment, with the biggest albums in the world, staring in the biggest concert tour of the year.

So let’s get to the show: Over 30 songs, all full of energy, had the crowd singing and dancing all night long. Their difference in styles comes off more as an Alpha/Omega relation, where as in past concerts Timberlake plays the same, he’s all over different instruments, commanding the crowd, and interjecting some very cool dance moves. Put him next to Jay Z however, and you notice how Jay commands a stage, while Justin fits easily into the sideman role. Jay Z has become one of the better live performers in music. While not built on movement or running and dancing around stage, Jay Z makes every move mean something, every verse, wether he emphasizes a line, a word, his voice…it commands the crowd.

There were the typical show-stoppers: Timberlake’s “Tunnel Vision”, “Pusher Love Girl”, “Mirrors”, “Love Stoned”, and “Cry me a river” put the crowd in the palm of his hands. Plus you’ll rarely find another song that gets a crowd moving and chanting like “Sexyback”. And while Justin was tremendous, it’s Jay Z who dominated the night. Commanding the Chicago audience to sing along to his NYC anthem “Empire State of Mind”, Jay Z rocked the crowd with hits such as “PSA”, “U Don’t Know”, “99 Problems” and “ Ni**as in Paris”.

After nearly three hours, as the clock approached midnight the two kings of music brought this epic night to a close, dominating the nights with hits, living up to most of the expectations fans had been counting on for months and months. Great show, great night.