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Mary J. Blige and Nas took the stage together, lighting up the night with their combined star power and drawing a huge roar from the crowd.
It was exactly the start that these fans were looking for as the two icons brought their co-headlining Royalty Tour to the Shoreline Amphitheatre at Mountain View on Wednesday (Aug. 14).
Blige and Nas performed just two songs together at the start of the concert, weaving their vocals together in glorious fashion first on “Thriving” and then “Reach Out,” but it was enough to make this concert feel like a true event. The only downside was that the moment should have lasted longer, maybe allowing time for the two stars to combine forces on another four or five songs before breaking off into solo sets.
As it stood, the crowd barely had time to catch its breath before Blige departed and Nas dug right into his solo set. The hip-hop legend used a good portion of his set to celebrate the 25th anniversary of “Illmatic,” his 1994 debut album that is widely celebrated as one of the greatest hip-hop outings of all time.
Nas lived up to his reputation as one of the best rappers ever — and certainly as one of the genre’s top songwriters — as he skillfully flowed through such “Illmatic” tracks as “It Ain’t Hard to Tell,” “Life’s a (expletive)” and “The World Is Yours.”
He also delivered a number of other memorable offerings from his 11-studio-album catalog, including “Hate Me Now” from 2002’s “I Am …” and the title track to 1999’s “Nastradamus,”
An hour into the concert, Nas handed the controls over to Blige and she took the show the rest of the way home.
The crowd — especially the female contingent — erupted at Blige’s return to the stage. From that point on, the star would be joyously accompanied on vocals by thousands of mostly female back-up singers in the crowd.
These fans sang along so passionately that Blige often decided not to compete and just turned the microphone out toward the audience. The legion of amateur backing vocalists hit their heights — as per usual at a Blige concert — on the amazing sing-along “I’m Going Down,” the old Rose Royce song that Blige turned into a tour de force on her “My Life” album. She only sang a small fraction of the song at Shoreline, allowing the eager crowd to handle almost all of the lyrics on its own.
Speaking of “My Life,” Blige was celebrating the 25th anniversary of that 1994 album on this tour. As such, she’d highlight a number of other fine songs from that record in Mountain View, including “Be Happy” and “You Bring Me Joy.”
Yet, the highlight of the evening was likely the volcanic, emotional rendition of the title track to 2001’s “No More Drama.” Blige didn’t hold anything back, throwing so much of herself into the song that she fell to the stage floor at its conclusion.
