THE MAN certainly can cause a stir. Jay-Z rolled into Hyde Park in a black Rolls Royce last night, ready to headline the premiere night of the O2 Wireless Festival just five days after his headline slot at Glastonbury had riled the likes of Noel Gallagher.


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He slouched in the back seat. A mix of hard-rocking and beat-dropping groups serenaded crowds pressing toward the festival’s five stages. All day long, the rapper – real name Sean Carter – had also brought on another controversy. Is it “Jay-Zee”? “Jay-Zed”? Even festival announcers flip-flopped.

In the hours leading up to the finale, Tuborg-swilling fans nodded and swayed to acts like The Cool Kids (RayBan-wearing Chicagoans who promote themselves as “the black Beastie Boys”) and Apollo Sunshine, who claim to channel Cheap Trick and the Flaming Lips but seem to have some way to go.

Mid-afternoon downpours (at some points, the clouds seemed to unleash waterfalls) couldn’t stop Irish electro star Roisin Murphy’s main-stage act, but they did draw larger crowds to watch duo Tinie Tempah rhythmically argue about who pulls more girls.

Hot Chip took advantage of slightly drier weather, blasting songs including Over and Over and One Pure Thought to a muddy-booted sea of festival-goers. Then came producer du jour Mark Ronson and his Version Players (nice to have you back, Lily Allen). A three-piece brass section and string quartet jazzed up his set and pumped up crowds, with only one act left to go.

“Throw your diamonds in the sky,” Jay-Z shouted to his crowd, and arms with outstretched fingers shot into the air. If any resentment about his performance at Glastonbury lingered, it didn’t travel to London. A set complete with all the classics – 99 Problems, Dirt off Your Shoulder, Hard Knock Life – properly accounted for drew nothing but cheers and rounds of bumping and grinding.

Hova, as he calls himself, tried to go Brit by inserting phrases like “taking the p**s” into his rhymes, and a cover of Estelle’s hit American Boy began proper mania. By then, bottles of the aforementioned Tuborg covered the lawn, which perhaps explained the extra jumping around and passionate lip-locking.

With the sun set for hours and still no signs of an Oasis-style backlash, Jay-Z stopped rapping, dropped the mic and grinned. “They told me you didn’t want me here,” he said. “And then I look out in the crowd and see all this love, and I know they were wrong.”

The O2 Festival runs until Sunday at Hyde Park. More info here

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