When the New Jersey Nets move into their new Brooklyn-based home, Barclays Arena, next fall, the team will receive a special welcome from one of their part owners: Jay-Z. The rapper has announced a string of concerts set to launch the arena next September, one month before the Nets begin their first season in Brooklyn.
"I'm gonna open the building with a concert -- a couple of concerts, actually," Jay-Z tells Fox's "Good Day New York." The rapper, who grew up in Brooklyn's Marcy Projects and became part owner of the team in 2004, also confirmed that the team name will indeed be the Brooklyn Nets, a development that he says makes him "really giddy."
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Jay-Z did not reveal how many concerts he plans to play at Barclays Arena, or whether the events will include any special guests. More important to the rapper is how the new arena is affecting the community in which he grew up. "It's already created so many jobs," he says. "Along with all the entertainment and basketball and boxing -- because it's gonna be more than about basketball, it's an entertainment arena -- along with all that, just to create jobs on top of that is a beautiful thing."
After headlining the iHeartRadio Music Festival in Las Vegas on Friday, Jay-Z will embark on the Watch The Throne tour with Kanye West, beginning in Atlanta on Oct. 28. And before he sets foot on the Barclays Arena stage, Jay will have welcomed a new baby with Beyonce, who announced her pregnancy at the MTV VMAs.
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